w 


^  MAR  17  1941  f 


Logical  si\^^:$> 


BR    530     .F7 

Ford,    David   Barnes,     1820- 

1903.  I 

New   England's    struggles    fo] 


1  :  K^  ,-  ^ 


New  England's  Struggles  for  Religious  Liberty 


' '  Hut  viy  soul,  wherewith  I  at>t  to  worship  God,  that  belotigeth 
to  another  King,  whose  kingdom  is  not  of  this  world,  whose  people 
must  come  willingly,  whose  weapons  arc  not  carnal  but  spiritual. ' ' 
—  Thomas  Helwys,  founder  of  the  First  General  Baptist  Church 
in  England,  1611. 

• '  So  is  it  the  duty  of  the  civil  magistrate  to  suppress  all  violence 
to  the  bodies  and  goods  of  meti  for  their  soul' s  belief,  atid  to  provide 
that  not  one  person  in  the  land  be  restrained  from,  or  constrained 
to,  any  worship,  ministry,  or  maintenance,  but  peaceably  maintained 
in  his  soul  as  well  as  corporal  freedom.'^ — Roger  Williams  "Hire- 
ling Minist>y,"   London,  /6j2,  p.  j8. 

•  •  J  our  petitioners  have  it  much  on  their  hearts  if  they  may  be 
permitted  to  hold  forth  a  lively  experiment  that  a  flourishing  civil 
State  may  stand,  yea,  and  best  be  maintained,  and  that  among 
JCnglish  spirits,  with  a  full  lihf.rtv  in  religious  con'CERN- 
MENTS." — Dr.  John  Clarke's  Petition  for  Rhode  Island  Charter, 
J  662. 


ERRATA 


Page  38  for  "(May)  1866"  read  "(May)  1636." 

Page  88  for  note  read  "  For  this  petition,  see  Mass.  Col.  Records,  Vol. 
IV.,  p.  450." 
Page  154  add  words  of  note   to   line   19,  so  that   it  will   read  "Quakers 
and  our  said   brethren,  the    Baptists."      Expunge  second  nu- 
meral in  note.  «. 

Page  206  in  fourth  line  from  bottom  read  "preceding  "  for  "following." 

Page  249  in  seventh  line  from  top  read  "should  "  for  "shall." 

Page  251   after  Appendix  A  for  (P.  22)  read  (P.  26). 

Page  255   in  tifth  line  from  top  for  "specific  "  read  "pacific." 

Page  259  after  Appendix  E  for  (P.   172)  read  (P.   179). 


^  MAR  17  1941 

New  England's  Struggl:#2c/lsj»v*$^ 


FOR 


Religious  Liberty 


BY 

REV.  DAVID  B.  FORD 

AUTHOR   OF 


"  Studies  on  Baptism,  with  Review  of  J.  W.  Dale,"  and  joint  author 

of  a  Commentary  on  the  "  Epistle  to  the  Romans" 

in  the  American  Commentary  Series 


"/<  is  pleasant  to  remember  that — where  there  is  painstaking  and  an  in- 
tention to  tell  the  truth — an  author's  most  lenient  judges  are  the  historical 
students,  who  know  by  experience  how  difficult  it  is  to  avoid  errors." — Prof. 
George  Park  Fisher,  in  his  Preface  to  his  "  Historj'  of  the  Christian 
Church  " 


PHILADELPHIA 

AMERICAN  BAPTIST  PUBLICATION  SOCIETY 

I8g6 


Copyright  1896  by  the 
American  Baptist  Publication  Society 


FOREWORD 


No  people  in  their  beginnings  have  left  richer  or 
more  abundant  materials  for  veritable  history  than  have 
the  Pilgrim  and  Puritan  fathers  of  New  England.  And 
it  is  a  matter  of  rejoicing  that  a  fresh  popular  interest 
in  our  Colonial  times  has  been  awakened  in  recent  years. 
An  indication  of  this  interest  is  plainly  seen  in  such 
writings  as  those  of  S.  G.  and  S.  A.  Drake,  of  Charles 
F.  and  Brooks  Adams,  of  Prof.  John  Fiske,  of  Alice 
Morse  Earle,  and  of  several  other  recent  writers.  The 
"  Margaret  Winthrop,"  by  Mrs.  Earle,  especially,  has 
much  authentic  and  interesting  historic  material.  The 
original  and  chief  sources  from  which  our  work  is  drawn 
are,  of  course,  given  in  the  body  of  the  text  and  need 
not  be  mentioned  here.  If  allowed  to  particularize, 
however,  I  should  say  that  perhaps,  in  a  considerable 
part  of  my  work,  nothing  has  been  more  interestingly 
helpful  to  me  than  the  treasures  of  the  library  of  the 
"Backus  Historical  Society,"  in  Newton  Center,  and 
of  the  Massachusetts  Archives,  in  the  State  House  in 
Boston. 

My  obligations  also  are  specially  due  to  our  great 
libraries,  to  the  Boston  Public  Library  most  of  all,  which 
has  allowed  me,  though  a  country  resident,  to  take  out 


6  FOREWORD 

gratuitously  many  desired  volumes  ;  also  to  the  Athe- 
naeum Librar)-,  the  Congregational  Library,  the  State 
Library,  and  the  Library  of  the  Massachusetts  Historical 
Society.  In  all  these  libraries  there  are  treasures  relat- 
ing to  our  theme,  which  are  as  yet  by  no  means  ex- 
hausted. 

D.  B.  F. 

HANoviiK,  .Mass.,  i8q6. 


CONTENTS 

Preliminary  Remarks, ii 

PART  I. 
The  Puritans  in  their  Relation  to  the  Anabaptists  and 

Quakers, 20 

PART  11. 
The  Pilgrims  in  their  Relation  to  the  Anabaptists  and 

Quakers, 122 

PART  III. 
The  Subsequent  Struggles  for  Religious  Liberty  and 

its  Final  Triumph 148 

I.  A    Spirited     Remonstrance    from    the    Baptist 

Churches, 150 

II.  The  Founding  of  the  Warren   Association  and 

THE  Committee  OF  Grievances 173 

III.  The  Appointment  of  an  Agent  for  the  Baptist 

Churches .    178 

IV.  Refusal  to  give  in  Certificates, 18 1 

V.  The  Baptist  Agent's  Mission  to  the  First  Conti- 
nental Congress, 186 

VI.  Appeal  of  the  Agent  to  the  Massachusetts  Pro- 
vincial Congress 191 

VII.   The  Agent's  Petition  to  the  General  Court  of 

Massachusetts, -lo 

VIII.   Matters  Touching  the  Formation  of  the  State 

Constitution. .     •     •   223 

7 


8  CONTENTS 

IX.  rill'.  Kffkct  ok  iiiK  Adoition  oi'  Till-:  Constitl'tion.  234 

X.   An  Important  Liccjal  Uixision .     .  237 

XI.  The  Religious  Freedom  Act  of  1811 239 

XII.  The  Delayed  Emancipation  of  Ma.ssachusetts,     .  242 

XIII.   Church  and  State  Finally  Separated 246 


APPENDIXES 

APPENDIX  A. 
Some  Account  OF  Henry  UuNSTEK, 251 

APPENDIX  B. 
Letter  of  Roger  Williams, 253 

APPENDIX  C. 
A  Petition  AGAINST  THE  Anabaptists 255 

APPENDIX  D. 
The  Royal  Commissioners'  Experience  of  the  Refrac- 
toriness of  Massachusetts 256 

APPENDIX  E. 
Backus  on  the  Federal  Constitution 259 

APPENDIX  F. 
Exemptive  Acts  of  Massachusetts  Relating  to  Baptists 
AND  Quakers, 261 

APPENDIX   G. 

Colonial  Governors  and  English  Sovereigns,  .     .    267 


NEW  ENGLAND'S 
STRUGGLES  FOR  RELIGIOUS  LIBERTY 


PRELIMINARY  REMARKS 

The  reign  of  violence  is  dead, 
Or  dying  surely  from  the  world  ; 
While  love  triumphant  reigns  instead, 
And  in  a  brighter  sky  o'erhead 
His  blessed  banners  are  unfurled. 
And  most  of  all,  thank  God  for  this  : 
The  war  and  waste  of  clashing  creeds 
Now  end  in  words  and  not  in  deeds. 
And  no  one  suffers  loss  or  bleeds 
For  thoughts  that  men  call  heresies. 
— "  The  Theologian,'"  in  Longfellow' s  Tales  of  a  Wayside  Inn. 

In  speaking  of  the  sufferings  endured  in  former 
times  by  the  Baptists  and  Quakers  of  New  England, 
and  of  the  struggles  whereby  religious  liberty  was  at 
length  secured,  our  thoughts  naturally  recur  to  the 
somewhat  similar  sufferings  of  the  Baptists  and  others 
in  the  South,  and  of  the  success  of  their  efforts  to 
secure  religious  freedom.  As  a  rigid  Puritanism  was 
the  "  Great  Iron  Wheel  "  of  a  crushing  oppression  in 
the  North,  so  was  the  Episcopal  Establishment  a  like 
instrument  of  dire  distress  in  the  South.  Persecution, 
indeed,  did  not  begin  so  early  in  the  South  as  in  New 
England,  since  the  early  Southern  Episcopalians  were 


12  NEW  England's  struggles 

lacking  in  that  religious  earnestness  which  characterized 
the  Puritans. 

The  first  penal  laws  of  Virginia  date  back  only  so 
far  as  1659,  1662,  and  the  struggle  for  liberty  there 
was  brought  to  a  close  much  earlier  than  in  New  Eng- 
land. The  victory  for  religious  freedom  in  Virginia, 
which  15ackus  describes  as  "the  greatest  revolution 
about  baptism  and  religious  liberty  that  ever  I  heard  of 
in  any  government  upon  earth,"  was  secured  in  1785, 
and  the  last  relic  of  Church  and  State  union  disappeared 
in  1802.  In  Connecticut,  however,  this  union  in  some 
form  lasted  till  1818,  and  in  Massachusetts  until  1833. 
But  while  persecution  raged  for  a  shorter  period  in  the 
South,  we  judge  it  to  have  been  fully  as  bitter  as  that 
endured  in  the  North.  Dr.  F.  L.  Hawks,  the  Epis- 
copalian historian,  says  that,  "  No  dis.senters  in  Virginia 
experienced  for  a  time  harsher  treatment  than  did  the 
Baptists.  They  were  beaten  and  imprisoned ;  and 
cruelty  taxed  its  ingenuity  to  devise  new  modes  of 
punishment  and  annoyance." 

But  the  Baptists  of  tlie  South,  in  their  struggles  for 
religious  liberty,  had,  we  think,  more  outside  help  than 
had  those  of  New  England.  They  had,  to  begin  with, 
the  potent  influence  and  aid  of  those  whom  we  may 
denominate  "the  three  mighties,"  Jefferson,  Madison, 
and  Henry.*     I  know  not  of  a  single  statesman,  and 


1  Under  the  head  of  "  Equal  Religious  Liberty,  stated  and  defended,'' 
in  the  March  number  of  the  "  .NLissachusetts  Baptist  Missionary  ^Liga/ine," 
l8ll,  may  be  found  Madison's  masterly  "  Memorial  and  Remonstrance 
against  the  General  Assessment,  presented  to  the  General  Assembly  of 
Virginia,"  1785,  which,  in  the  words  of  the  editor,  "  has  been  pronounced 
by  good  judges  to  be  the  best  defense  of  the  rights  of  conscience  now 
extant." 


PRELIMINARY    REMARKS  I3 

scarcely  a  prominent  man,  in  the  North  who  spoke  a 
word  for  religious  freedom.  Especially  encouraging, 
also,  to  the  brethren  of  the  "  United  Baptist  Churches 
in  Virginia,"  to  whom  "  mobs,  bonds,  fines,  and  prisons  " 
had  been,  under  the  royal  government,  their  "  frequent 
repast,"  were  the  words  of  Washington  upon  receiving 
from  a  Committee  of  the  Baptist  Churches  an  Address, 
signed  "August  8,  1789.  Samuel  Harris,  Chairman, 
Reuben  Ford,  Clerk,'"  but  written,  as  we  have  seen  it 
stated,  by  Elder  John  Leland,  a  stalwart  champion  of 
religious  liberty  both  in  the  South  and  in  the  North.^ 
The  Southern  Baptists  were  for  a  time  also  greatly 
aided  by  the  Presbyterians  and,  to  some  extent,  by  the 

1  "  In  his  later  years  Mr.  Leland  labored  efficiently  in  Massachusetts  in 
the  cause  of  religious  freedom,  which  he  had  done  so  much  to  secure  in 
Virginia.  A  characteristic  speech  on  this  subject  which  he  delivered  to  the 
legislature  of  Massachusetts,  inl  81 1,  may  be  found  in  'Benedict's  History, ' 
Vol.  XL,  pp.  482-486." — Prof.  Weston's  note  to  "  Backus'  History."  For 
some  account  of  his  labors  in  the  South,  see  Dr.  Cathcart's  "  Baptist  Ency- 
clopEedia,"  p.  1182,  and  Dr.  Armitage's  "  History  of  the  Baptists,"  pp.  7^7- 
8ll.  In  Vol.  VI.  of  Sprague's  "Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit,"  Dr.  B.  T. 
Welch  relates  the  following  anecdote  of  Elder  I  eland :  An  orthodox 
brother  proposed  to  Mr.  Leland  that  he  should  have  the  use  of  the  Con- 
gregational meeting-house  if  he  would  preach  extempore  from  a  text  that 
should  be  given  him  in  the  pulpit.  To  this  he 'assented,  and  just  as  he 
rose  to  begin  his  sermon  he  opened  the  paper  containing  the  text,  and 
found  these  words  :  "  And  Balaam  saddled  his  ass.' '  Whereupon  he  said : 
"  This  brings  to  our  view  three  things — a  prophet,  an  ass,  and  a  saddle. 
Balaam,  the  prophet  who  loved  the  wages  of  unrighteousness,  and  he  well 
represents  the  class  who  oppress  their  fellow-men  (otherwise  the  Congrega- 
tionalists) ;  the  ass,  a  patient  bearer  of  grievous  burdens,  represents  those 
who  are  oppressed  by  them  ;  and  the  saddle  is  the  unrighteous  exaction 
that  is  made  of  these  downtrodden  denominations."  Of  course  these  were 
sufficient  heads  for  an  ample  and  pungent  sermon.  It  was  Mr.  Leland's 
wish  that  the  following  sentence  should  be  inscribed  on  his  gravestone  : 
Here  lies  the  body  of  John  Leland,  who  laboured— to  promote  piety  and 
vindicate  the  civil  and  religious  rights  of  all  men. 

B 


14  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

Quakers.  In  New  England,  the  Quakers  as  a  body 
put  forth  but  few  concerted,  persistent  legal  efforts  for 
the  securing  of  liberty,  and  they  aided  this  cause 
chiefly  by  their  voluntary  sufferings  and  by  the  giving 
up  of  their  lives.  The  early  Separatists  sympathized, 
of  course,  with  the  cause  of  the  Baptists,  as  also  did  the 
few  Episcopalians  of  that  time.  In  1645  some  isolated 
individuals,  mainly  persons,  as  we  suppose,  of  Episcopal 
preferences,  like  William  Vassal,  of  Scituate,  in  Plym- 
outh Colony,  sent  in,  as  we  shall  see  farther  on,  a 
petition  to  the  Plymouth  Court,  urging  a  "  full  and  free 
tolerance  of  religion  to  all  men  that  would  preserve  the 
civil  peace,"  etc.,  and  "You  would  have  admired," 
wrote  Edward  Winslow,  "  to  have  seen  how  sweet  this 
carrion  relished  to  most  of  the  deputies."  The  next 
year  a  petition  of  the  zealous  Episcopalian,  Sam,- 
uel  Maverick,  of  Noddle's  Island  (East  Boston),  and 
Dr.  Robert  Child,  of  Hingham,  with  five  others,  was 
presented  to  the  Massachusetts  legislature,  wherein 
they  state  that  "  There  are  many  thousands  also  in 
these  plantations,  free-born,  quiet,  and  peaceable  men, 
who  are  debarred  from  all  civil  employments  ;  and 
members  of  the  Church  of  England,  with  their  pos- 
terity, are  detained  from  the  seals  of  the  covenant  of 
free  grace." 

Notwithstanding  these  few  individual  efforts,  it  must 
be  said  that  in  the  great  contest  for  liberty,  the  Baptists 
of  New  England  stood  alone.  No  other  denomination 
or  organized  community,  by  systematic,  persevering  legal 
efforts  sought  to  abolish  the  oppressive  laws  of  the 
State  and  secure  the  inestimable  boon  of  religious 
liberty  for  all.     "You  Baptists,"  said  a  distinguished 


PRELIMINARY    REMARKS  I5 

Congregational  minister,  Dr.  Leonard  Swain,  of  Provi- 
dence, R.  I.,  at  the  Centennial  of  the  Warren  Associa- 
tion, 1867,  ".You  Baptists  fought  the  battle  of  religious 
liberty  and  we  all  enjoy  the  fruits  of  the  victory."  We 
presume  that  the  Baptists  of  the  South  also  felt  that 
they  too  were  left  in  great  part  to  fight  their  battles 
alone.  Certainly,  according  to  Dr.  Hawk's  concession, 
they  were  the  principal  agents  in  the  securing  of  reli- 
gious liberty.  "The  Establishment,"  he  says,  "was 
finally  put  down.  The  Baptists  were  the  principal 
promoters  of  this  work,  and  in  truth  aided  more  than 
any  other  denomination  in  its  accomplishment."  ^ 

As  we  now  proceed  to  consider  the  religious  persecu- 
tions which  took  place  in  New  England,  in  order  the 
better  to  show  the  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  character  in  its 
sterner  aspects,  as  also  the  greatness  of  the  struggle 
whereby  religious  liberty  was  at  last  achieved,  we  must 
speak  somewhat  at  length  of  the  relation  which  the 
Puritan  and  Pilgrim  fathers  sustained  to  the  Anabap- 
tists and  Quakers.  In  answer  to  the  question,  What 
was  the  original  and  distinctive  difference  between  the 
Puritans  and  the  Pilgrims  ?  it  may  be  sufficient  in  a 
general  way  to  say  that  the  Puritans,  while  desirous  of 
remaining  in  the  Church  of  England,  sought  to  purify 
and  free  the  church  from  its  "  humane  inventions,"  es- 
pecially from  its  leanings  toward  papacy  in  the  matter 
of  vestments  and  other  rites.'     The  peculiar  Puritan 

1  For  the  story  of  the  sufferings,  struggles,  and  triumphs  of  the  Southern 
Baptists  we  must  refer  our  readers  to  the  historical  works  of  Semple  and 
Howell,  and  to  the  lesser  writings  of  Curry,  Taylor,  Bitting,  Long,  John- 
son, Bailey  (pubUshed  by  the  American  Baptist  Publication  Society),  and 
Dabney  (in  Vol.  XXIII.  of  the  "  Christian  Review  "). 

*  Calvin  in  his  letter  to  John  Knox  says  :  "  In  the  liturgy  of  England  I 


l6  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

tcclinri^  was  voiced  by  I-'rancis  Higginson,  first  minister 
of  Salem,  in  this  wise  : 

We  will  not  say  as  the  Separatists  were  wont  to  say  at  their 
leaving  of  England  :  Farewel  Babylon  !  Farewel  Rome  !  But  we 
will  say  :  Farewel  Dear  England  !  Farewel  the  church  of  God  in 
England  and  all  the  Christian  friends  there  I  We  do  not  go  to 
New  JCngland  as  Separatists  from  the  Church  of  England  ; 
though  we  cannot  but  separate  from  the  corruptions  in  it  ;  but 
we  go  to  practise  the  positive  part  of  church  reformation,  and 
propagate  the  Gospel  in  America. 

Winthrop's  company,  who  came  over  a  little  later; 
speak  of  themselves — 

As  those  who  esteem  it  an  honor  to  call  the  Church  of  Eng- 
land, from  whence  wee  rise,  our  deare  mother,  and  cannot  part 
from  our  native  countrie  where  she  specially  resideth,  without 
much  sadnes  of  heart  and  many  tears  in  our  eyes  ;  ever  acknowl- 
edging that  such  hope  and  part  as  we  have  obtained  in  the 
common  salvation,  wee  have  received  in  her  bosome  and  suckt 
it  from  her  breasts,  etc. 

Thus  while  they  did  not  at  first  separate  themselves 
from  their  "deare  mother,"  the  English  Church,  they 
felt  it  to  be  an  impossibility  for  them  wholly  to  conform 
to  its  ritual.  What  many  of  them  suffered  for  their 
nonconformity  may  be  inferred  in  part  from  the  threat 
of  King  James  I.  :  "I  will  make  them  conform  or  I  will 

see  that  there  were  many  tolerable  foolish  things ;  by  these  words  I  mean 
that  there  was  not  that  purity  which  was  to  be  desired.  .  .  So  it  behooved 
the  learned,  grave,  and  godly  ministers  of  Christ  to  enterprise  farther,  and 
to  set  forth  something  more  filed  from  rust  and  pun-r.  If  godly  religion 
had  flourished  till  this  day  in  England  there  ought  to  have  been  a  thing 
better  corrected,  and  many  things  clean  taken  away.  I  cannot  tell  what 
they  mean  which  so  greatly  delight  in  the  leavings  of  popish  dregs." 


PREI.IMINARY   REMARKS  17 

harry  them  out  of  the  land  or  else  do  worse."  But 
neither  Elizabeth,  nor  James,  nor  Charles  I.  and  II., 
nor  the  Archbishops  Parker,  Whitgift,  Bancroft,  and 
Laud,  could  coax  or  force  the  Puritans  to  conform,  and 
so  hundreds  and  thousands  of  nonconforming  Episcopal 
ministers  were  silenced,  deprived  of  their  benefices, 
fined,  imprisoned,  or  exiled. 

The  Pilgrims,  on  the  other  hand,  were  not  only  non- 
conformists like  the  Puritans,  but  Separatists ;  that  is, 
they  had  wholly  seceded  from  the  established  church 
and  thus  incurred  the  special  hostility  of  both  Church 
and  State.  Consequently,  though  in  spite  of  govern- 
mental opposition,  they  felt  "  constrained  to  leave  their 
native  soyle  and  countrie,  their  lands  and  livings,  and 
all  their  freinds  and  famillier  acquaintance"  (Bradford). 
And  so  they  sought  refuge  in  Holland,  "  where  was 
freedome  of  religion  for  all  men,"  and  where  in  the  en- 
joyment of  this  religious  liberty,  and  under  the  liberal- 
izing teachings  of  John  Robinson,  they,  while  holding 
to  the  Calvinistic  tenets  of  the  Puritans,  became  far 
more  tolerant  in  spirit  and  practice  than  they.^ 

In  1620  the  Pilgrims  emigrated  to  Plymouth,  in  New 
England,  and  in  1628-30  the  Puritans  settled  in  Salem 
and  Boston.  In  a  surprisingly  short  space  of  time,  and 
largely,  we  think,  through  the  influence  of  the  Plym- 
outh deacon  and  doctor,  Samuel  Fuller — who  was  "well 

1  However  we  may  interpret  John  Robinson's  famous  utterance  that  "  he 
was  very  confident  the  Lord  had  more  truth  and  hght  to  breake  forth  out  of 
his  holy  word  " — whether  as  referring  to  theology,  or,  as  Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter 
supposes,  to  church  polity — it  is  certain  that  he,  a  high  Calvinist  and 
utterly  opposed  to  Arminianism  (which  is  perhaps  fairly  represented  by 
our  present  diluted  orthodoxy),  would  have  looked  with  dread  upon  any 
lowering  down  of  the  "  doctrines  of  grace." 


l8         NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

versed  in  the  way  of  church  discipline  which  was 
practised  by  Mr.  Robinson's  church,"  and  who  was 
several  times  called  to  the  Massachusetts  colony  to  "let 
blood,"  by  which  occasions  he  was  enabled  also  to 
"prescribe  for  spiritual  ailments"  or  church  needs — 
these  Puritan  emigrants  became  Independents  or  Con- 
gregationalists  like  the  Pilgrims  of  Plymouth. 

Note. — In  1629  the  church  at  Salem  chose  Samuel  Skelton 
for  their  pastor,  and  Francis  Higginson  for  their  teacher  ;  and 
these   were   ordained    or  installed    in   the  Congregational  way, 
Gov.    Bradford,    of  Plymouth,    giving  the  hand    of  fellowship. 
Thereupon,   the  two  brothers    John  and  Samuel  Brown   being 
Episcopalians,    "accused  the  ministers  as   depaiting  from   the 
orders  of  the  Church  of  England  ;    that  they  were  Separatists, 
and  would  be  Anabaptists,"  etc.     The  brothers  having  set  up  a 
separate  worship  of  their  own,  and  being  men  of  "high  spirits, 
and  their  speeches  and  practices  tending  to  mutiny  and  faction, 
the  Governor  [Endicott]   told  them  that  New  England  was  no 
place  for  such  as  they,  and  therefore  he  sent  them  both  back  to 
England   at  the   return  of  the  ships    [probably  in  the  'Lion's 
Whelp']   the  same  year"  (Morton's  "Memorial,"  p.  100).     A 
minister,    Mr.   Ralph  Smith,  who   came  over  at  the  same  time 
with  Mr.  Higginson,  being  a  Separatist,   "was  required  to  give 
under  his  hand  that  he  would  not  exercise  his  ministry  within 
the  limits  of  the  patent  without  the  express  leave  of  the  Governor 
on  the  spot."      He  left  Salem  and  became  the  first  minister  of 
the  church  at  Plymouth.     Mr.  Higginson  died  at  an  early  age 
the   next  year,   and   Mr.   Skelton   in  August,    1634,   which  was 
nearly  a  year  after  the  coming  of  Roger  Williams  from  his  two 
years,  or  more  pastorate  in   Plymouth  to  become  for  a  second 
time  a  preacher  in  Salem.     Gov.  Bradford  would  have  retained 
him  longer  in  Plymouth,  but  Elder  Brewster  advised  his  going, 
fearing  "that  he  would  run  the  same  course  of  rigid  separation 
and    anabaptistry    which    Mr.    John    Smith,    the    Se-baptist    at 
Amsterdam,  had  done."      Immediately  on  Williams'  first  arrival 
in  this   country  he   was   invited,    in   the  temporary  absence  of 


PRELIMINARY    REMARKS  I9 

Mr.  Wilson,  to  become  teacher  of  the  Boston  church,  which  call 
he  declined  because  they  were  "an  unseparated  people."  At 
Salem,  as  we  are  told,  "in  one  year's  time  he  filled  that  place 
with  principles  of  rigid  separation,  tending  to  anabaptistry." 
His  separative  principles  finally  became  so  rigid  that  he  told  his 
church  "if  they  would  not  separate,  not  only  from  the  churches 
of  Old  England  but  the  churches  of  New  England  too,  he  would 
separate  from  them,"  which  he  accordingly  did.  In  1635  he 
was  separated  from  Massachusetts.  This  voluntary  withdraw- 
ing of  himself  from  the  churches  in  protest  against  their  errors 
was  in  his  view  or  to  his  hope  "the  breath  of  the  Lord  Jesus 
sounding  forth  in  him  (a  poor  despised  ram's  horn)  the  blast 
which  in  His  own  holy  season  should  cast  down  the  strength  and 
confidence  of  all  those  inventions  of  men  in  the  worshiping  of 
the  true  and  living-  God." 


PART  I 
THE  PURITANS 

THEIR    RELATION    TO    THE    ANABAPTISTS    AND    QUAKERS 

Touching  the  superior  powers  of  the  earth,  it  is  not  unknown 
to  all  them  that  hath  read  and  marked  the  Scripture  that  it 
appertaineth  nothing  unto  their  office  to  make  any  law  to  govern 
the  conscience  in  religion.  .  .  Christ  alone  is  the  governor  of 
His  church  and  the  only  lawgiver. — John  Hooper,  the  first  Pur- 
itan nonconforiiiist  and  martyr,  /jjj. 

Gospel  constitutions,  in  the  case  of  heresy  or  error,  seem  not 
to  favor  any  course  of  violence,  I  mean,  of  civil  penalties.  Fore- 
told it  is  that  heresies  must  be  ;  but  this  for  the  manifesting  of 
those  who  are  approved,  not  the  destroying  of  those  that  are 
not.  .  .  Perhaps  those  who  call  for  the  sword  on  earth  are  as 
unacquainted  with  their  own  spirits  as  those  that  called  for  fire 
from  heaven. — Dr.  John  Owen,  1616-1683. 

The  reason  (for  the  command,  Deut.  13  :  10)  is  moral,  that  is, 
of  universal  and  perpetual  equity  to  put  to  death  any  apostate, 
seducing  idolater,  or  heretic. — John  Cotton,  "Reply  to  Roger 
Witliains,"  164/. 

1  believe  that  antichrist  hath  not  at  this  day  a  more  probable 
way  to  advance  his  kingdom  of  darkness  than  by  a  toleration  of 
all  religions  and  jiersuasions. — Dr.  Increase  Mather,  i6jj. 

It  seem.s  at  first  view  somewhat  remarkable  that  the 
Puritans  of  Massachusetts  Bay  gave  their  special  atten- 
tion to  the  "obstinate  and  turbulent  Anabaptists"  as 
early  as  1644,  some  twelve  years  before  they  seriously 
noticed  the  "pernisouse  Quakers,"  against  whom  sub- 
20 


THE   PURITANS  21 

sequently  they  showed  a  special  malignancy.  Of  course 
a  sufficient  reason  for  the  prior  attention  shown  to  the 
Baptists  is  found  in  the  fact  that  they  emigrated  to 
this  country  earlier  than  the  Quakers.  Cotton  Mather, 
grandson  of  the  famed  John  Cotton  (born  1663),  while 
disliking  Anabaptism,  yet  speaks  of  the  early  Anabap- 
tists in  wholly  favorable  terms,  and  in  striking  contrast 
with  the  above  characterization.  He  says :  "  Infant 
baptism  hath  been  scrupled  by  multitudes  in  our  day 
who  have  been  in  other  points  most  worthy  Christians, 
and  as  holy,  watchful,  fruitful,  and  heavenly  people  as 
perhaps  any  in  the  world.  Some  few  of  these  people 
have  been  among  the  planters  of  New  England  from 
the  beginning."^  It  is  a  singular  circumstance  that 
several  of  the  oldest  Congregational  churches  in  Eng- 
land—  many  of  whose  members  early  came  to  this 
country — were  afflicted  with  what  this  same  Cotton 
Mather  calls  "the  hydrophobic  of  Anabaptism."  The 
Gainsboro  Church  (founded  1602),  of  which  John  Smyth 
— "  a  man  of  able  gifts  and  a  good  preacher  "  (Bradford) 
— was  pastor,  and  the  church  of  John  Robinson  at 
Scrooby  (founded  1606),  were  probably  at  their  begin- 
ning originally  one  ;  and  both  these  pastors  with  many 
of  their  people  emigrated,  though  at  different  times,  to 
Holland,  where  there  were  already  many  ^^fratres  Angli 
in  Belgia  exiilantcsy  Smyth,  who,  as  is  commonly 
averred,  at  first  joined  the  Brownist  church,  of  which 
Francis  Johnson  was  pastor  and  the  learned  Henry 
Ainsworth  was  teacher — though  Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter 
states  that  he  established  a  "  Second  English  Church  at 

'  "  Magnalia,"  Lib.  II.,  459. 


22  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRrOCxLES 

Amsterdam  " — afterward  became  an  y\nabaptist  or  Se- 
bajitist,  as  he  is  commonly  called.' 

In  the  "True  Story  of  John  Smyth"  will  be  found 
an  interesting  discussion  and  a  flat  and  vehement  denial 
of  the  genuineness  of  the  wonderful  "  Records  of  the 
Ancient  Baptist  Church  of  Crowle,"  which  inform  us 
that  prior  to  their  coming  to  this  country,  nearly  all  the 
Pilgrim  fathers,  Carver,  Brewster,  Bradford,  Winslow, 
Prince  (but  not  John  Robinson)  were  Baptists  ! 

Mr.  Smyth,  who  seems  in  many  respects  to  resemble 
Roger  Williams,  has  ever  been  regarded  as  a  gifted 
man  but  as  wanting  in  stability.     He  says,  however, 

'  Dr.  Dexter,  in  his  "Congregationalism  as  seen  in  its  Literature," 
p.  319,  and  in  his  "True  Story  of  John  Smyth,"  has  produced  much 
seeming  evidence  for  Smyth's  self-baptism,  but  we  must  still  beg  leave  to 
doubt.  Smyth's  own  statement  is  that  "seeing  ther  was  no  church  to 
whome  we  could  joyne  with  a  Good  conscience  to  have  baptisme  from 
them,  ther  for  wee  might  baptize  ourselves."  At  a  later  date  when  he  had 
adopted  other  views,  he  and  his  new  followers  speak  of  their  former  error 
"that  they  began  to  baptize  themselves" — se  iJ>sos  baptizare.  But  if  this 
refers  to  individual  self-baptism  it  would  prove  that  each  one  of  Smyth's 
company  baptized  himself,  which  would  be  proving  too  much  ;  for  no  one 
supposes  that  each  member  of  his  church  (which  a  writer  of  that  time  calls 
"  a  company  of  Se-baptists  ")  baptized  himself  Smyth  furthermore  main- 
tained that  it  requires  two  at  least  to  institute  a  proper  church  or  baptism. 
Edward  Bean  Underbill,  a  distinguished  English  Baptist,  advances  the  idea 
that  Smyth  and  others,  who  differed  from  the  Dutch  Baptists  in  several 
particulars,  were  "  unwilling  to  resort  to  them  for  baptism,  and  became  of 
the  opinion  that  it  might  be  originated  among  themselves,"  as  in  the  case 
of  Roger  Williams  and  his  friends.  And  from  this,  as  he  supposes,  origi- 
nated the  charge  that  Smyth  baptized  himself.  See  S.  S.  Cutting's  "  His- 
torical Vindications,"  pp.  57-60.  We  may  here  remark  that  the  term 
"  anabaptism,"  as  used  in  early  times  decides  nothing  as  lo  the  mode  of  re- 
baptism.  Dr.  Dexter  maintains  that  Smyth,  like  the  Mennonites,  was  bap- 
tized by  affusion,  and  that  even  the  Anabaptists  in  I-"ngland  did  not  practise 
immersion,  till  about  the  year  1641,  which  last  assertion  will  not  be  gener- 
ally believed      See  Dr.  Armitage's  "  History  of  the  Baptists,"  pp.  425-465. 


THE   PURITANS  23 

that  to  "  fal  from  the  profession  of  Puritanisrne  to 
Brovvnisme,  and  from  Brownisme  to  true  Christian  Bap- 
tisme  is  not  simply  evil  or  reprovable  in  itself,  except  it 
be  proved  that  we  have  fallen  from  true  religion." 
Many  adhered  to  him  in  his  change  of  views,  but  the 
greater  number  opposed  him  and  charged  him  with 
being  "  a  murderer  of  the  souls  of  babes  and  sucklings 
by  depriving  them  of  the  visible  seal  of  salvation."  His 
successor,  Thomas  Helwys,  with  his  church,  about  the 
year  161 1 — the  year  in  which  our  Common  version  of 
the  Bible  made  its  appearance — published  to  the  world 
a  Confession  of  Faith,  wherein  they  boldly  affirmed  that. 

The  Magistrate  is  not  by  virtue  of  his  office  to  meddle  with 
religion  or  matters  of  conscience,  to  force  or  compel  men  to  this 
or  that  form  of  reHgion  or  doctrine,  but  to  leave  Christian  religion 
free  to  every  man's  conscience,  and  to  handle  only  civil  trans- 
gressions, injuries,  and  wrongs  of  man  against  man,  .  .  .  for 
Christ  only  is  the  king  and  lawgiver  of  the  church  and  conscience.' 

Helwys,  we  may  remark,  once  belonged  to  the 
"ancient  church  of  Separatists,"  probably  to  that  of 
Gainsboro,  and,  according  to  John  Robinson's  state- 
ment, he  more  than  others  furthered  the  cause  of 
emigration  to  Holland.  Probably  through  the  influence 
of  Smyth  he  was  led  to  a  change  of  views.  Robinson 
and  others  had  a  controversy  with  both  Smyth  and 
Helwys. 

'  In  Crosby's  second  volume,  Appendix  II.,  of  his  '  History  of  the  Eng- 
lish Baptists  "  is  "  A  most  Humble  Supplication  "  to  King  James  I.,  pub- 
lished 1620,  "  of  many  of  his  Majesty's  Loyal  Subjects,  Unjustly  called 
Ana-baptists,"  wherein  they  say  that  "  no  man  ought  to  be  compelled  to  a 
worship  wherein  he  hath  not  faith,  seeing  there  is  but  one  Lord  and  one 
Lawgiver  over  the  conscience." 


24  NEW  exCxI.and's  struggles 

The  next  oldest  Congregational  church  was  that  of 
Southwark,  London,  founded  or  re-established  in  1616, 
of  which  Henry  Jacob  was  pastor,  who  in  1624  removed 
to  Virginia,  where  he  soon  died.  Under  its  second 
pastor,  John  Lothrop,  more  than  a  score  of  its  members 
seceded  and  formed  a  Particular  or  Calvinistic  Baptist 
church,  in  1633,  with  John  Spilsbury  as  their  pastor.* 
Prof.  A.  H.  Newman  in  his  recent  "  History  of  the 
Baptist  Churches  "  states  as  a  matter  of  considerable 
importance,  that  Mark  Luker  (or  Lukar)  who  seceded 
with  Mr.  Spilsbury  from  the  Southwark  Church,  and 
was  immersed  in  1641,  became  a  ruling  elder  and  a 
leading  worker  in  John  Clarke's  church  at  Newport, 
thus  forming  a  connecting  link  between  the  first 
Calvinistic  Baptist  church  in  England  and  one  of  the 
two  earliest  American  Baptist  churches.  He  died  a 
few  months  after  Mr.  Clarke,  1676,  "leaving"  as 
Backus  says,  "the  character  of  a  very  worthy  walker." 

It  was  "  At  a  Disputation  in  Southwark,"  held 
October  17,  1642,  between  Mr.  William  Kiffen,  with 
three  others,  and  Dr.  Daniel  Featly,  that  "  The  Dippers 
[were]  Dipt,  or  the  Anabaptists  dvck'd  and  plung'd  over 
Head  and  Eares  "  by  (the  tongue  of)  said  P^eatly,  who 
in  the  Dedication  of  his  work  to  the  reader,  says :  "  I 
could  hardly  dip  my  pen  in  anything  but  gall,"  which 
utterance  does  not  seem  to  be  that  of  a  conscious  victor 
in  debate. 


•  In  Mr.  Felt's  "Ecclesiastical  History"  it  is  stated  that  a  manuscript, 
dated  1646,  supposed  to  have  been  written  by  Richard  Mather,  of  Dor- 
chester, containing  a  reply  to  nine  reasons  of  John  Spilsbury  for  proving 
that  infants  should  not  be  baptized,  is  now  in  the  American  Antiquarian 
Society's  Collections,  in  Worcester. 


THE   PURITANS  25 

After  the  Southwark  secession,  Mr.  Lothrop  with 
about  thirty  members  emigrated  in  1634  to  "the  wil- 
derness called  Scituate,"  in  Plymouth  Colony,  and  here 
again  they  were  divided  on  the  subject  of  baptism. 
A  part  of  the  members  with  their  pastor  withdrew  in 
1639  to  Barnstable,  where  also  at  a  later  date  there 
were  "great  divisions"  on  the  Baptist  question,  and 
Charles  Chauncy,  a  Pedobaptist  immersionist,  who 
had  been  preaching  in  Plymouth  for  nearly  three  years, 
was  chosen  in  1641  to  be  Mr.  Lothrop's  successor  in 
Scituate.'  After  a  service  here  of  thirteen  years,  till 
1654,  he,  on  condition  of  his  forbearing  to  disseminate 
his  peculiar  views,  was  elected  president  of  Harvard 
College,  in  place  of  the  genial  and  gentle  Henry  Dun- 
ster,  "  vir  pietate,  doctt'ina,  prndcntia  insig-nis,"  \who, 
after  serving  fourteen  years,  from    1640,  as  the  first 

1  Edward  Winslow  writes  in  1646  (as  quoted  in  Prof.  Newman's  "  History 
of  the  Baptist  Churches  "),  that  "in  the  government  of  Plymouth,  to  our 
great  grief,  not  only  the  pastor  of  a  congregation  waiveth  the  administra- 
tion of  baptism  to  infants,  but  divers  of  his  congregation  are  fallen  with 
him."  This  is  supposed  to  refer  to  Chauncy  and  his  congregation  at  Sci- 
tuate. And  yet  there  is  indubitable  evidence  that  he  held  to  and  practised 
the  immersion  of  infants.  The  historian  of  this  town  says,  "  There  seemed 
to  be  three  parties  in  Scituate  at  this  time :  one  of  which  held  to  infant 
sprinkling,  another  to  adult  immersion  exclusively,  and  a  third  (of  which 
was  Mr.  Chauncy),  to  immersion  of  infants  as  well  as  adults."  It  is  not 
easy  to  reconcile  these  differing  statements.  The  one  sure  thing  about  the 
matter  is,  that  he  "  waived  the  administration  of  baptism  ' '  in  the  customary 
form  of  sprinkling.  His  contest  with  the  Plymouth  Church  had  reference 
solely  to  immersion.  This  was  the  subject  of  the  public  disputes  which  he 
held  with  the  neighboring  ministers,  and  it  was  his  arguments  in  favor  of 
immersion  which,  by  request  of  the  Plymouth  Church,  were  sent  to  the 
churches  and  ministers  of  the  Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  and  New  Haven 
Colonies,  for  the  purpose  of  refutation.  Of  course,  to  one  like  him  who 
was  fixed  in  his  views  "  as  the  earth  was  vpon  the  center,' '  their  answers 
were  not  satisfactory. 

C 


26  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

president  of  the  college,  aiul  having  to  the  consterna- 
tion of  the  authorities  "  unaccountably  fallen,"  as  Cot- 
ton Mather  expresses  it,  "  into  the  briars  of  Antipedo- 
baptisni,"'  was  invited  by  the  Court  in  1654,  as  a  per- 
son "  unsound  in  the  fayth,"  to  resign  his  office,  and 
thereafter  he  became  in  turn  Chauncy's  successor  in  the 
Scituate  parish  till  his  death  in  1659.  The  law  of 
1653,  which  may  have  been  enacted  in  reference  to  his 
defection,  and  by  which  the  Court  was  enabled  to  inti- 
mate the  desirableness  of  his  resignation,  reads  as  fol- 
lows :  "  Every  person  that  shall  publish  and  maintain 
any  hoethrodoxe  and  erroneous  doctrine  shal  be  liable 
to  be  quaestioned  and  censured  by  the  County  Court 
where  he  liveth,  according  to  the  merrit  of  his  offence."'' 
Thus  it  was  that  the  Baptists  emigrated  from  Eng- 
land to  America,  and  as  they  were  deemed  obstinate 
and  turbulent  there,  so,  though  even  to  a  greater  de- 
gree, were  they  regarded  here.  The  Puritans  of  the 
Massachusetts  Colony  gave  them  very  hard  and  op- 
probrious names,  such  as  "soul  murderers,"  "troublers 
of  the  churches,"  "incendiaries  of  the  Commonwealth," 
and  more  than  one  writer  applied  to  anabaptism  the 
offensive  term,  "scab."  Dr.  Increase  Mather  charged 
them  with  "setting  up  altar  against  the  Lord's  altar," 
and  Urian  Oakes,  afterward  president  of  Harvard  Col- 
lege, branded  their  doctrine  as  "  an  engine  framed  to 
cut  the  throat  of  the  infantry  of  the  churches."  To 
stay  the  early  tide  of  the  anabaptistic  errors,  and  to 
establish  the  contrary  opinions,  Lothrop  in  1644  pub- 
lished, "  To  Sion's  Virgins  :  Or  a  Short  Forme  of  Cate- 


>  "Magnalia,"  Lib.  IL,  78. 

*  For  some  further  account  of  Henry  Dunster,  see  Appendix  A. 


THE    PURITANS  27 

chisme  of  the  Doctrine  of  Baptisme.  In  use  in  these 
Times  that  are  so  full  of  Questions."  In  the  same  year 
appeared  Thomas  Shepard's  "  New  England's  Lam- 
entations for  Old  England's  present  errours  and  divi- 
sions, and  their  feared  future  desolations,  if  not  timely 
prevented,  occasioned  by  the  increase  of  Anabaptists, 
rigid  Separatists,  Antinomians,  and  Familists,  together 
with  some  seasonable  remedies,"  etc.  In  1645  George 
Philips,  of  Watertown — ancestor  of  those  who  founded 
the  famous  Andover  and  Exeter  Academies — wrote  a 
"  Reply  to  a  Confutation  of  some  Grounds  for  Infant 
Baptism,"  with  an  Introduction  by  Thomas  Shepard  of 
Cambridge.^  Still  later,  in  1647,  John  Cotton,  the 
great  light  and  strong  pillar  of  early  Puritanism,  wrote 
on  "  The  Grounds  and  Endes  of  the  Baptisme  of  the 
Children  of  the  Faithful."  In  the  same  year,  Nathaniel 
Ward,  of  Ipswich — who  got  up  the  "  Body  of  Liber- 
ties," adopted  by  the  Puritan  Court  in  1641 — published 
in  England  his  "  Simple  Cobler  of  Aggawam  in  Amer- 
ica, Willing  to  help  'mend  his  Native  Country  lament- 
ably tattered  both  in  the  upper-leather  and  Sole,  with 
all  the  honest  stitches  he  can  take,"  etc.,  in  which  work 
he  scourges  Anabaptists  and  others  with  no  little 
severity.  The  next  year  Thomas  Cobbet,  of  Lynn, 
published  "A  Just  Vindication  of  the  Covenant  and 
Church-estate  of  Children  of  Church  members,  as  also 
of  their  Right  unto  Baptisme  ;  Wherein  such  things  as 

1  In  Vol.  X.  of  the  Massachusetts  Archives  (a  collection  of  some  240 
volumes  of  manuscripts  in  the  Secretary's  Department  of  the  State  House 
in  Boston),  is  a  letter  of  Mr.  Philips,  in  which  he  petitions  the  Court  to 
remit  the  fine  imposed  on  John  Stowers,  one  of  his  church,  for  reading  an 
Anabaptist  book,  stating  that  he  is  "  perswaded  Stowers  is  free  from  all 
Anabaptistical  opinions." 


28       NEW  England's  struggles 

have  been  iM-ought  by  divers  to  the  contrary,  especially 
by  Job.  Spilsbury  (and  others),  are  revised  and  An- 
swered." And  in  1649  Thomas  Hooker,  "a  luminary 
of  the  first  magnitude,"  issued  a  work  "intituled"  the 
"  Covenant  of  Grace  Opened  ;  wherein  These  particu- 
lars are  handled,  viz..  What  the  Covenant  of  Grace  is  ; 
What  the  Scales  of  the  Covenant  are  ;  Who  are  the 
Parties  and  Subjects  fit  to  receive  these  Seales,  From 
all  which  Particulars  Infants'  Baptisme  is  proved  and 
vindicated."  W'e  may  mention  here  another  quaintly 
titled  work  written  several  years  later,  1 681,  by  Samuel 
Willard,  teacher  of  the  "Old  South"  Church,  Boston, 
afterward  acting  president  of  Harvard  College  :  "  Ne 
S II tor  ultra  Crcpidain  "  (Cobbler,  stick  to  your  last),  the 
same  containing  "  Brief  Animadversions  upon  the  New 
England  Anabaptists  late  Fallacious  Narrative,"  etc. 
This  "Narrative,"  which  was  in  part  an  answer  to  Dr. 
Increase  Mather's  "  Divine  Right  of  Infant  Baptism," 
was  from  the  pen  of  John  Russell,  styled  by  the  histo- 
rian Hubbard,  "a  wedderdop'd  shoemaker,"  of  W^oburn, 
afterward  pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Boston.' 
Our   Puritan    forefathers    professedly  came   to  this 

'  For  such  "  consecrated  cobblers  "  as  Elder  Russe'i,  and  William  Wick- 
enden,  of  Rhode  Island,  one  of  the  pioneer  Baptist  preachers  in  the  Pro- 
vince of  New  Netherland  (New  York),  and  William  Carey,  the  pioneer 
baptist  missionary  to  India,  the  Christian  world  may  well  be  thankful.  In 
1656,  the  "  Colibler  from  Rhode  Island"  was  sentenced  to  pay  a  fine  ot 
^100  Flemish,  and  to  be  banished  out  of  the  Province,  but  to  remain  in 
prison  till  the  fine  and  cost  of  the  process  be  paid.  The  Council,  however, 
remitted  his  fine  on  being  informed  that  he  was  a  poor  man,  "  with  a  wife 
and  many  children,  by  profession  a  cobbler,  which  trade  he  neglects,  so 
that  it  will  be  impossible  to  collect  anything  from  him  "  ;  though,  if  ever 
seen  in  the  Province  again,  "he  shall  be  arrested  and  kept  in  confinement 
till  the  fine  and  costs  are  paid  in  full." 


THE   PURITANS  29 

"  remote  corner  of  the  earth  to  advance  the  kingdom 
of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  to  enjoy  the  hberties  of 
the  Gospel  in  purity  with  peace."  Again,  in  1685,  in 
their  address  to  King  James  II.,  they  say  that  their 
fathers  came  to  this  "vast  howling  wilderness"  in  or- 
der that  "  they  and  wee  their  children  after  them 
might  worship  God  according  to  the  dictates  of  our 
consciences,  founded  upon  the  Sacred  Scriptures,  which 
liberty  of  our  religion  wee  esteeme  more  deare  to  us 
than  our  Hues."  Again  they  say  :  "Our  highest  am- 
bition is  to  live  a  poore  and  quiet  life  in  a  corner  of  the 
world  without  offence  to  God  or  man."  In  coming, 
therefore,  to  "this  Pathmos,"  this  "vast  and  waste 
wilderness,"  they  designed  to  make  it  a  quiet  Christian 
home  for  themselves,  "an  innofencive  retjrement  to 
worship  God,"  and  preserve  his  truth  ;  and  hence,  as 
nursing  fathers  to  the  church,  the  magistrates  felt  it 
right  to  exclude  from  their  partnership  or  company  any 
persons  of  pernicious  faith  and  practice  who  might  ven- 
ture to  intrude.  They  had  not  learned  from  Jeremy 
Taylor  that 

It  is  also  a  part  of  Christian  religion  that  the  liberty  of  men's 
consciences  should  be  preserved  in  all  things  where  God  hath 
not  made  a  limit  or  set  a  restraint  ;  that  the  soul  of  man  should 
be  free  and  acknowledge  no  master  but  Jesus  Christ  ;  that  mat- 
ters spiritual  should  not  be  restrained  by  punishments  corporal  ; 
and  that  the  same  meekness  and  charity  should  be  preserved  in 
the  promotion  of  Christianity  that  gave  it  foundation  and  incre- 
ment and  firmness  in  the  first  publication. 

Nor  had  they  attained  to  Roger  Williams'  high  ideal  of 

the  duty  of  the  civil  magistrate  to  suppress  all  violence  to 
the  bodies  and  goods  of  men  for  their  soul's  belief,  and  to  pro- 


30         NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

vide  that  not  one  person  in  the  land  be  restrained  from,  or  con- 
strained to,  any  worship,  ministry,  or  maintenance,  but  peace- 
ably maintained  in  his  soul  as  well  as  corporal  freedom. 

Such  doctrine  as  this  would  be  to  the  Puritan  author- 
ities a  "  cursed,  intolerable  toleration,"  adapted  only  to 
an  impossible  Utopia,  where,  according  to  one  of  its 
earliest  laws,  "  it  should  be  lawfull  for  everie  man  to 
favoure  and  folow  what  religion  he  would."  They 
knew  and  deeply  felt  that  a  small  and  feeble  commu- 
nity cannot  bear  those  internal  antagonisms  which  a 
larger  and  stronger  one  would  scarcely  feel.  "  It  is 
evident,"  says  Dr.  Increase  Mather,  "that  toleration  is 
in  one  place  not  only  lawful,  but  a  necessary  duty, 
which  in  another  place  would  be  destructive  ;  and  the 
expectation  of  it  irrational.  That  which  is  needful  to 
ballast  a  great  ship  will  sink  a  small  boat."  John  Fiske 
remarks  that  "  the  Puritan  communities  were  to  some 
slight  extent  influenced  by  such  conditions  as  used  to 
prevail  in  primitive  society,  where  above  all  things  the 
prime  social  and  political  necessity  is  social  cohesion 
within  the  tribal  limits,"  without  which  "the  existence 
of  the  tribe  is  likely  to  be  extinguished."  In  these 
conditions  he  traces  the  rise  of  the  persecuting  spirit 
which  will  begin  to  pass  away  after  men  have  become 
organized  into  great  and  strong  nations.  Charles  Fran- 
cis Adams,  in  his  criticism  of  the  Puritans,  makes 
no  distinction  between  the  necessities  of  a  little  strug- 
gling community  and  those  of  a  powerful  nation. 

As  we  have  seen,  the  Puritan  emigrants  sought  here 
a  peaceful  home  for  themselves ;  and  as  no  one  has  a 
right  to  enter  a  house  without  the  owner's  consent,  and 
"  if  without  authority  and  with  violence  one  presumes 


THE   PURITANS  3 1 

to  enter,  such  intruder  may  justly  forfeit  even  his 
life;"  so  they  ask  "if  the  publicke  keepers  and  guar- 
dians of  the  Commonwealth  have  not  as  much  power 
to  take  away  the  Hues  of  such  as,  contrary  to  prohibi- 
tion, shall  jnvade  and  intrude  into  theire  publicke  pos- 
sessions or  territories  as  Private  and  particular  habita- 
tions." Dr.  Palfrey,  in  his  "  History  of  New  England," 
claims  that  "  no  householder  has  a  more  unqualified 
title  to  declare  who  shall  have  the  shelter  of  his  roof 
than  had  the  Governor  and  Company  of  Massachusetts 
Bay  to  decide  who  should  be  sojourners  or  visitors 
within  their  precincts."  In  1659  John  Norton,  the 
successor  of  John  Cotton  in  the  first  Boston  church, 
published  a  book  entitled,  "  The  Heart  of  New  Eng- 
land Rent  "  (by  the  evil  tenets  and  practices  of  the 
Quakers),  in  which  he  says  : 

The  wolf  which  ventures  over  the  wide  sea  out  of  a  ravening 
desire  to  prey  upon  the  sheep,  when  landed,  discovered,  and 
taken,  hath  no  cause  to  complain,  though  for  the  security  of  the 
flock,  he  be  penned  up  with  that  door  opening  upon  the  fold  fast 
shut,  but  having  another  door  purposely  left  open  whereby  he 
may  depart  at  his  pleasure,  either  returning  from  whence  he 
came  or  otherwise  quitting  the  place. 

"  If,"  says  the  Rev.  William  Hubbard,  of  Ipswich, 
in  an  election  sermon,  1676,  "If  the  owner  or  keeper 
of  a  vineyard  shall  make  a  thorn  hedge  about  it,  if  any 
man  by  violence  breaking  in  shall  wound  or  destroy 
himself,  where  will  the  blame  be  found — in  them  that 
make  the  hedge  so  sharp  and  strong,  or  in  them  that 
attempted  without  leave  violently  to  break  in.'*"  Dr. 
Thomas  Arnold,  who  advocated  a  union  of  Church  and 
State,  also  advances  the  theory  that  "  every  people  in 


32  NKW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

that  country  which  is  rightfully  theirs  may  establish 
their  own  institutions  and  their  own  ideas ;  and  no 
stranger  has  any  title  whatever  to  become  a  member  of 
that  nation  unless  he  adopts  their  institutions  and 
ideas." 

This  theory  seems  plausible,  but  somehow  it  does 
not  work  well  in  practice  so  far  as  nations  and  govern- 
ments are  concerned.' 

Our  fathers,  moreover,  "  in  forming  their  Politique 
Constitution,  had  an  eye  principally  and  primarily  unto 
the  Ancient  Platforme  of  God's  lawe."  In  other 
words,  their  government  was  theocratic  ;  God  himself 
being  their  Governor,  and  the  Bible,  or  rather  the  Old 
Testament,  and  more  particularly  "Moses  his  Judi- 
cials,"  being  the  statute  book.  Their  ideal  form  of 
government  was  not  democratic  but  monarchical,  with 
God  as  their  monarch.     Said  John  Cotton  : 

Democracy  I  do  not  conceive  that  ever  God  did  ordain  as  a  fit 
government  either  for  Church  or  CommonweaUh.  If  the  people 
be  governors,  who  shall  be  goxerned  ?  As  for  monarchy  and 
aristocracy,  they  are  both  ol  them  clearly  approved  and  directed 
in  Scripture,  yet  so  as  referreth  the  sovereignty  to  himself  and  set- 
teth  up  theocracy  in  both  as  the  best  form  of  government  in 
the  Commonwealth  as  well  as  in  the  Church. 

As  early  as  163 1  the  Court  pdssed  an  order  that  "  no 
man  shall  be  admitted  to  the  freedom  of  this  body  pol- 
itick, but  such  as  are  members  of  some  of  the  churches 
within  the  limits  of  the  same."     Thus  from  this  date 


'  For  a  discussion  of  the  right  of  exclusion  and  banishment  under  the 
Puritan  Charter,  which  grants  allowance,  under  certain  circumstances,  to 
"repulse,  repell,"  etc.,  see  Dr.  George  E.  Ellis'  "Puritan  Age  in 
Massachusetts,"  Chapter  VIL 


THE   PURITANS  33 

onward  (until  1664)  all  voters  in  civil  affairs,  and 
ail  government  officers,  had  to  be  church-members. 
Hence  the  Puritan  government,  like  that  of  Israel, 
was  both  civil  and  religious.  State  and  Church,  which 
they  compared  to  Moses  and  Aaron  kissing  each  other 
on  the  mount  of  God — being  regarded  as  essentially 
one.  We  may  call  it  a  Church-State  system.  The 
Puritan  State  House,  as  it  has  been  said,  was  within 
the  meeting-house.  Hence  the  Commonwealth,  as 
"  growing  out  of  the  Church,"  and  being  "  administered 
for  and  by  God,"  must  be  regarded  as  virtually  iden- 
tical with  the  church.'  In  thus  adopting  the  Jewish 
Commonwealth  as  the  mode  for  their  government,  they 
felt  it  be  God's  government  rather  than  theirs,  and  that 
any  disobedience  to  it  was  virtually  rebellion  against 
God. 

As  Dr.  Geo.  E.  Ellis  remarks : 

They  were  acting  under  the  restraint  of  a  divine  obligation 
and  covenant,  and  not  as  being  at  perfect  liberty  to  use  their 
own  wit  or  wisdom  in  plans  of  their  own.  .  .  They  could  say, 
as  in  fact  they  did  say,  to  many  victims  of  their  severe  disci- 
pline :  "You  are  not  simply  withstanding  us,  breaking  our  laws, 
defying  our  authority,  you  are  rebelling  against  God  ;  and  as 
we  have  put  ourselves  under  his  rule  and  statutes,  we  intend  to 
hold  you  to  the  same  subjection."  .  .  If  one  who  has  but  a 
superficial  knowledge  and  apprehension  of  the  principles  and 
spirit   of  Puritanism  is   disposed  to  pronounce  upon  their  rule 

1  Perhaps  for  a  small  matter  nothing  better  illustrates  this  Church  and 
State  union  than  the  case  of  Mrs.  Sherman  and  her  lost  pig,  the  interest 
in  which  became  so  deep  and  general  that  it  greatly  convulsed  both  Church 
and  Commonwealth.  This  contention,  beginning  in  1636,  was  not  really 
settled  till  1644,  when  the  General  Court  was  divided  into  two  branches, 
the  Senate  and  House  of  Representatives.  Thus,  as  Winthrop  says,  did 
"  a  great  business  grow  out  of  a  very  small  occasion." 


34  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

that  they  must  have  been  inborn  inquisitors  and  fiends  of  cru- 
elty, he  must  be  left  free  to  hold  that  opinion,  or  advised  to  en- 
lighten it. 

Evidently  under  this  theocratic  rule,  while  private 
thought  might  be  indulged,  yet  but  little  liberty  of  per- 
sonal utterance  or  action  could  be  allowed  apart  from 
public  authority.  The  Puritan  rule  took  cognizance  of 
the  outward  breaches  of  the  first  table — which  relates 
to  our  duties  to  God — as  well  as  of  the  second.  No 
meetings  could  be  held  or  attended,  no  meeting-houses 
could  be  built,  no  minister  chosen  and  settled,  no  sal- 
ary fixed  and  provided  for,  apart  from  the  action  or 
authority  of  the  "General  Corte."  Townships  were 
granted  on  the  condition  that  the  citizens  should  sus- 
tain an  able  and  orthodox  ministry.'  Hence  the  Court 
enacted  as  early  as  1638  that, 

"  Every  inhabitant  in  any  town  is  lyable  to  contribute  to  all 
charges  both  in  Church  and  Commonwealth,  whereof  he  doth  or 
may  receive  benefit.  .  .  And  every  inhabitant  who  shall  not  vol- 
untarily contribute  proportionably  to  his  ability  .  .  .  for  upholding 
the  ordinances  in  the  churches  as  otherwise,  shall  be  compelled 
thereto  by  assessment  and  distress. ' '  Even  in  the  first  year  of 
lioston's  settlement  a  tax  of  sixty  pounds  was  assessed  on  Bos- 
ton and  neighboring  villages  for  the  maintenance  of  Elders 
Wilson  and  Philips.  In  1646  a  law  was  passed  requiring  all 
persons,  not  incapacitated,  to  attend  the  preaching  provided  for 
them  on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  on  days  of  fasting  and  thanks- 
giving,   under  a  penalty  of  five  shillings  for  each  case  of  ab- 

*  The  town  of  Hanover,  where  the  writer  now  re.sides,  was  incorpo- 
rated in  1727,  under  the  condition  that  its  iiihabitant.s  "do  within  the 
space  of  two  years  erect  and  finish  a  suitable  house  for  the  public  worship 
of  God,  and,  as  soon  as  may  be,  procure  and  settle  a  learned  Ortho- 
dox minister  of  tjood  conversation,  and  make  Provision  for  his  comfort 
able  and  honourable  support." 


THE    PURITANS  35 

sence.  The  court  also  "  ordered  that  if  any  Christian  (so 
called)  within  this  jurisdiction  shall  contemptuously  behave  him- 
selfe  towards  ye  word  preached  or  ye  messengers  thereof  called 
to  dispence  ye  same,  either  by  interrupting  him  in  his  preaching, 
or  by  charging  him  falsely  with  any  error  which  he  hath  not 
taught  in  ye  open  face  of  ye  church,  or,  like  a  sonn  of  Korah, 
cast  upon  his  true  doctrine  or  himselfe  any  reproach  to  ye  dishon- 
our of  ye  Lord  Jesus  who  hath  sent  him,  and  to  ye  disparagement 
of  his  holy  ordinance,  and  making  God's  wayes  contemptible 
and  ridiculous  ;  yt  every  such  person  or  persons  (whatever  cen- 
sure ye  church  may  passe)  shall  for  the  first  scandall  be  con- 
vented  and  reproved  openly  by  ye  magistrates  at  some  lecture, 
and  bound  to  their  good  behaviour.  [Under  this  law  ex-Presi- 
dent Dunster  was  arraigned  in  the  church  where  he  had  so  often 
preached  and  worshiped,  for  "open  contempt  of  God's  word  and 
messengers,"  by  "interrupting,"  not  the  "preaching"  indeed, 
but  the  services.]  And  if  a  second  time  they  break  forth  into 
like  contemptuous  carriages,  either  to  pay  five  pounds  into  the 
public  treasury,  or  to  stand  two  houres  openly  upon  a  block  four 
foote  high,  on  a  lecture  day,  with  a  paper  fixed  on  his  breast 
with  this  :  A  Wanton  Gospeller,  written  in  capitall  letters. ' '  ^ 

'  The  Connecticut  Colony  was  settled  by  encigrants  from  the  vicinity  of 
Boston,  and  in  forming  their  government  they  naturally  adopted  many  of 
the  laws  of  Massachusetts.  They  at  first  even  named  their  towns  after 
those  they  had  left ;  calling  Hartford,  Newtown ;  Windsor,  Dorchester  ;  and 
Wethersfield,  Watertown.  We  find  the  above  laws  of  1638,  1646  incor- 
porated almost  verbatim  in  the  first  code  of  Conneedcut  Colony  (1650), 
only  "Wanton  Gospeller  "  gives  place  to  "an  open  and  obstinate  con 
temner  of  God's  Holy  Ordinances,"  which  phrase  was  afterward,  in  1672, 
adopted  by  the  Massachusetts  authorities.  The  New  Haven  Colony  even 
more  than  that  of  Connecticut,  borrowed  in  letter  or  spirit  from  the  civil 
polity  and  laws  of  Massachusetts.  By  their  legislature  it  was  "  ordered 
that  the  judicial  lawes  of  God  as  they  were  delivered  by  Moses,  ande  as 
they  are  a  fence  to  the  morall  lawe,  being  neither  typicall  nor  ceremoniall, 
nor  had  any  reference  to  Canaan,  shall  be  accounted  of  moral  equity,  ande 
generally  binde  all  offenders  ande  be  a  rule  to  all  the  Courts  in  their  pro- 
ceedings against  offenders."  "  None  shall  be  admitted  freemen  or  free 
burgesses  within  this  jurisdiction  or  any  part  of  it,  but  such  planters  as  are 
members  of  some  one  or  other  of  the  approved  churches  of  New  Eng- 


36  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

A  law  of  1652  required  all  towns  to  be  supplied  with 
a  minister,  a  meeting-house,  and  a  parsonage,  and  all 
the  inhabitants  to  be  taxed  for  their  support.  The 
Court  enacted  in  1654,  for  the  comfortable  mainte- 
nance of  the  ministry  : 

That  the  County  Court  in  eueiy  shire  shall  (vppon  information 
given  them  of  any  defect  of  any  congregation  or  township  within 
the  shire)  order  and  appoynt  what  mayntenance  shalbe  allowed 
to  the  ministers  of  that  place,  and  shall  issue  out  warrants  to  the 
select  men  to  assesse,  and  the  constable  of  the  said  towne  to  col- 
lect the  same,  and  distreine  the  said  assessment  vppon  such  as 
shall  refuse  to  pay. 

A  law  of  1658,  relating  to  the  selecting  of  ministers, 
thus  reads  : 

Whereas  it  is  the  duty  of  the  Christian  magistrate  to  take  care 
the  people  be  fed  with  wholesome  and  sound  doctrine,  and  in 
this  houre  of  temptation,  wherein  the  enemy  designeth  to  sowe 
corrupt  seede,  every  company  cannot  be  thought  able  or  fitt  to 
judge  of  those  gospell  qualliffications  required  in  the  publicke 
dispensors  of  the  word,  .  .  .  considering  also  the  rich  blessing 
of  God  flowing  from  the  good  agreement  of  the  civill  and  church 
estate,  and  the  horrible  mischeifes  and  confusions  that  follow  on 
the  contrary  :  it  is  therefore  ordered  that  henceforth  no  person 
shall  publicquely  and  constantly  preach  to  any  company  of  peo- 
ple whither  in  church  society  or  not,  or  be  ordeyned  to  the  office 
of  a  teaching  elder,  where  any  two  organnick  churches,  Councill 
of  State,  or  General  Court  shall  declare  their  dissatisfaction 
thereat,  either  in  reference  to  doctrine  or  practize. 


land."  "The  Court  shall,  with  all  care  and  diligence,  provide  for  the 
maintenance  of  the  purity  of  religion,  and  suppress  the  contrary  according 
to  their  best  light  from  the  word  of  God."  "  All  who  refuse  to  pay,  or 
subscribe  not  according  to  their  means  (for  supporting  the  ministry),  sliall 
be  assessed  at  a  juat  rate  with  others.  If  any  refuse  to  pay  after  being 
so  taxed,  they  shall  be  made  to  pay.' ' 


THE   PURITANS  37 

When  now  that  "godly  minister,"  Roger  Williams, 
proclaimed  in  Salem  the  "  newe  and  dangerous  opinion  '' 
that  "  the  civill  magistrates'  power  extends  only  to  the 
Bodies  and  Goods  and  outward  State  of  men,"  having 
no  right  to  meddle  with  one's  religion  or  with  matters 
of  conscience,  such  a  doctrine  as  this,  was  indeed,  as 
they  allege,  subversive  of  their  (theocratic)  govern- 
ment, and  tended  to  undermine  the  foundations  of 
their  colony.  And  so  on  "  3d  Sept.,"  according  to 
a  loose  statement  of  the  Colony  Records,  or  more  prob- 
ably, October  9  (19  N.  S.),  1635,  the  Massachusetts 
Court  (with  the  approval  of  all  the  ministers  save  one), 
"  ordered  that  the  said  Mr.  Williams  .  .  .  shall  depte 
[departe]  out  of  this  jurisdiccon  within  sixe  weekes 
nowe  nexte  ensueing."  John  Haynes,  who  was  gov- 
ernor that  .year  and  pronounced  the  sentence  of  ban- 
ishment against  Williams,  afterward,  with  Thomas 
Hooker,  took  up  his  abode  in  Connecticut.  We  read 
in  Backus'  "History,"  Vol.  H.,  515,  that: 

When  Williams  was  at  his  house  in  Hartford,  Haynes  said  to 
him  :  "I  must  now  confess  to  you  that  the  most  wise  God  hath 
provided  and  cut  out  this  part  of  his  world  for  a  refuge  and  re- 
ceptacle for  all  sorts  of  consciences.  1  am  now  under  a  cloud, 
and  my  brother  Hooker,  with  the  Bay,  as  you  have  been.  We 
have  removed  from  them  thus  far,  and  yet  they  are  not  satisfied." 

But  all  was  not  peace  even  in  Salem,  after  Roger 
Williams  left,  as  we  may  see  by  the  following  mandate 
sent  by  the  authorities  at  Boston  : 

TO   THE   CONSTABLE   OF    SALEM. 

Whereas  we  are  credibly  informed  that  divers  persons  (both 
men  and  women)  within  your  town  do  disorderly  assemble  them- 

D 


38  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

selves  both  upon  the  Lord's  day  and  other  times,  and  contemptu- 
ously refusing  to  come  to  the  solemn  meetings  of  the  church 
there  (or  being  some  of  them  justly  cast  out)  do  obstinately  re- 
fuse to  submit  themselves  that  they  might  be  again  received  ; 
but  do  make  contentions  and  seduce  divers  persons  of  weak 
capacity,  and  have  already  withdrawn  some  of  them  from  the 
church,  and  thereby  have  caused  much  (not  only  disturbance  in 
the  church,  but  also)  disorder  and  damage  in  the  civil  state,  so 
as  if  they  be  suffered  to  go  on,  your  town  is  like  to  be  deserted 
of  many  of  the  chief  and  most  useful  members,  to  the  great  dis- 
honour of  Ciod  ;  these  are  therefore  to  require  you  forthwith  to  re- 
pair unto  all  such  disordered  persons  (taking  assistance  of  two  or 
three  honest  neighbors)  and  signify  unto  them  that  their  said 
course  is  very  offensive  to  the  government  here,  and  may  no 
longer  be  suffered,  and  therefore  command  them  from  us  to  re- 
frain all  such  disordered  assemblies  and  pretended  church  meet- 
ings, and  either  confine  themselves  to  the  laws  and  orders  of  this 
government,  being  established  according  to  the  rule  of  God's 
word,  or  else  let  them  be  assured  that  we  shall,  by  God's  assist- 
ance, take  some  such  strict  and  speedy  course  for  the  reformation 
of  these  disorders,  and  preventing  the  evils  which  may  otherwise 
ensue,  as  our  duty  to  God  and  charge  over  this  people  do  call  for 
from  us.  And  when  you  have  given  them  this  admonition  you 
shall  diligently  attend  how  it  is  observed,  and  certify  us  accord- 
ingly, as  you  will  answer  your  neglect  herein  at  your  peril. 

H.  Vane,  Govr. 

Jo.  WiNTHROP,   Dept. 

Tho.  Dudley. 

From  Boston  this  30  of  the  3  month  (May),  18&6. 

It  was  almost  an  axiom  with  our  Puritan  fathers 
that  religious  toleration  is  incompatible  with  the  au- 
thority of  magistrates,  or  indeed,  with  the  existence  of 
the  civil  State.  In  opposition  to  such  an  idea  and  to 
show  how  soul-freedom  and  governmental  authority 
may  co-exist,  Roger  Williams  uses  the  following  strik- 
ing and  beautiful  illustration : 


THE    PURITANS  39 

There  >^oes  many  a  ship  to  sea  with  many  hundred  souls  on 
one  ship,  whose  weal  and  woe  is  common,  and  is  a  true  picture 
of  a  commonwealth  or  an  human  combination  or  society.  It 
hath  fallen  out  sometimes  that  both  Papists  and  Protestants, 
Jews  and  Turks,  may  be  embarked  into  one  ship  ;  upon  which 
supposal  I  affirm  that  all  the  liberty  of  conscience  that  ever  I 
pleaded  for,  turns  upon  these  two  hinges  :  that  none  of  the  Pa- 
pists, Protestants,  Jews,  or  Turks,  be  forced  to  come  to  the  ship's 
prayers  or  worship,  nor  compelled  from  their  own  particular 
prayers  or  worship,  if  they  practise  any.  I  further  add  that  I 
never  denied  that  notwithstanding  this  liberty,  the  commander 
of  this  ship  ought  to  command  the  ship's  course  ;  yea,  and  also 
command  that  justice,  peace,  and  sobriety  to  be  kept  and  prac- 
tised both  among  the  seamen  and  all  the  passengers.  If  any  of 
the  seamen  refuse  to  perform  their  service,  or  passengers  to  pay 
their  freight  ;  if  any  refuse  to  help,  in  person  or  purse,  toward 
the  common  charges  or  defense  ;  if  any  refuse  to  obey  the  com- 
mon laws  and  order  of  the  ship  concerning  their  common  peace  or 
preservation  ;  if  any  mutiny  and  rise  up  against  their  commanders 
and  officers  ;  if  any  should  preach  or  write  that  there  ought  to 
be  no  commanders  nor  officers  because  all  are  equal  in  Christ, 
therefore  no  masters  or  officers,  no  laws  nor  orders,  no  correc- 
tions nor  punishments  ;  I  say  I  never  denied  but  in  such  cases, 
whatever  is  pretended,  the  commander  or  commanders  may 
judge,  resist,  compel,  and  punish  such  transgressors  according  to 
their  deserts  and  merits.  This  if  seriously  and  honestly  minded 
may,  if  it  so  please  the  Father  of  lights,  let  in  some  light  to 
such  as  willingly  shut  not  their  own  eyes. 

The  Puritans  would,  in  opposition  to  the  above,  force 
all  the  company  in  their  "ship  of  State,"  to  come  to 
their  prayers  and  worship  and  help  support  the  same, 
and  would  forbid  all  other  worship  ;  and  they  would  do 
this  on  the  ground  that  such  attendance  and  conformity 
was  a  righteous  demand  of  their  divinely  ordained  and 
divinely  administered  government,  and  to  refuse  obedi- 
ence was  not  only  to  rebel  against  God,  but  to  under- 


40         NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

mine  said  government  ;  and  in  such  a  case  the  com- 
manders or  magistrates  "  may  judge,  resist,  compel,  and 
punish  such  transgressors."  Under  the  theocratic 
government  of  Massachusetts,  "heresy  and  treason 
were  convertible"  terms  (Straus'  "Roger  Williams"). 
Roger  Williams,  we  may  remark,  was  not  banished 
as  a  Baptist,  though  he  had  "  anabaptistic  tendencies." 
In  after-life  he  was  a  Baptist  church-member  probably 
only  a  few  months — in  Judge  Staples'  opinion,  and 
according  to  the  Church  Records  compiled  in  1775, 
about  four  years — and  then  he  became  what  is  custom- 
arily called,  "  a  Seeker,"  or  one  who  waits  for  the 
reappearance  of  true  apostles.  The  principal  reason 
given  for  his  banishment  was  that  he  "  broached  and 
dyvulgcd  dyvers  newe  and  dangerous  opinions  against 
the  aucthoritie  of  Magistrates,  as  also  writt  Irs  [letters] 
of  defamacon  both  of  the  magistrates  and  churches 
here,  and  that  before  any  conviccon,  and  yet  mainetaineth 
the  same  without  retraccon."  John  W^inthrop  voted 
against  him,  but  afterward  regretted  it,  and  in  view  of 
his  subsequent  services  to  the  colony,  was  disposed  to 
recall  him  from  his  banishment  and  confer  upon  him 
some  mark  of  favor  for  his  services.^     I  am  inclined  to 

'  When  Mr.  Winthrop  on  his  death-bed  was  pressed  by  Mr.  Dudley  to 
sign  an  order  of  banishment  of  an  heterodox  person  (Mr.  Matthews,  a 
Welsh  minister),  he  refused,  saying,  "  I  have  done  too  much  of  that  work 
already."  Williams  had  Gov.  Winthrop  for  a  lifelong  friend,  and  we  do 
not  wonder  that  when  writing  to  John  Winthrop,  Jr.,  Governor  of  Connec- 
ticut, he  should  say  that  he  "  ever  honored  and  loved  and  ever  shall  the 
root  and  branches  of  your  deare  name."  Williams  writes  that  Stephen 
Winthrop,  another  of  Gov.  Winthrop's  sons,  was  "a  great  man  for  soul 
liberty."  Indeed,  Mr.  Williams  has  words  of  praise  for  very  many  of  the 
Puritan  fathers  and  would  seem  to  think  more  highly  of  them  than  do 
many  of  their  descendants.     He  calls  Gov.  Haynes,  who  pronounced  sen 


THE  PURITANS  4 1 

think  that  Roger  Williams'  "services,"  particularly  by 
his  preventing  a  conspiracy  among  the  Indians,  saved 
the  Puritan  colony  from  utter  destruction.  In  Vol.  X. 
of  the  "  Plymouth  Colony  Records,"  p.  438,^  is  an  ex- 
ceedingly interesting  letter  written  in  1654  by  Williams 
to  the  Massachusetts  people,  urging  them  to  keep  peace, 
especially  with  the  Narragansetts.  In  this  letter  he  in- 
cidentally alludes  to  some  of  his  services  by  reminding 
them — 

Yt  vpon  ye  expresse  advice  of  Your  euer  honoured  Mr.  Win- 
throp,  deceased,  I  first  adventured  to  begin  Plantation  among  the 
thickest  of  these  Barbarians  ;  That  in  ye  Pequt  wars  it  pleased 
your  honoured  Goernment  to  employ  me  [a  few  months  after  his 
arrival  at  Providence]  in  ye  hazardous  and  waighty  service  of 
negociating  a  leauge  between  Yourselves  and  ye  Narrigansetts 
when  ye  Pequt  Messengers  (who  sought  ye  Narrigansetts  leauge 
against  ye  English)  had  almost  ended  yt  my  worck  and  Life  to- 
gether. ["Three  days  and  nights  my  business  forced  me  to 
lodge  and  mix  with  the  bloody  Pequod  ambassadors,  whose 
hands  and  arms,  methought,  reeked  with  the  blood  of  my 
countrymen,  murdered  and  massacred  by  them  on  the  Connec- 
ticut River,  and  from  whom  I  could  not  but  nightly  look  for  their 
bloody  knives  at  my  own  throat  also." — From  a  letter  to  Major 
Mason.]  That  at  ye  subscribing  of  yt  sollemne  Leauge  (which 
by  ye  mercy  of  ye  Lord  I  had  procured  with  ye  Narrigansetts) 
Your  Government  was  pleased  to  send  unto  me  ye  Copie  of  it, 

tence  of  banishment  against  him,  a  "heavenly  man,"  and  he  speaks  of 
Edward  Winslow  as  "  that  great  and  pious  soul,"  "a  wise  and  eminently 
Christian  Governor,"  who  nevertheless  advised  Williams,  though  with  the 
loss  of  his  harvest,  to  "  remove  "  from  Seekonk,  which  was  within  the  Plym- 
outh Colony  limits,  "  to  the  other  side  of  the  water,  where  he  had  the 
country  before  him,  and  might  be  free  as  themselves,  and  they  should  be 
loving  neighbors  together."  Yet  Williams  felt  himself  "  as  good  as 
banished  from  Plymouth  as  from  Massachusetts,"  and  he  may  justly  have 
said,  A  bull  of  excommunication  follows  me  wherever  I  go. 

1  See  also  Knowles'  "  Memoir  of  Roger  Williams,"  pp.  272-278. 


42  NEW  England's  struggles 

subscribed  by  all  Hands,  Yours  and  Theirs,  which  yet  I  keepe 
as  a  Monument  of  Mercy  and  a  Testimonie  of  Peace  and  Fayth- 
fullness  betveene  You  both.  That  since  yt  time  jt  hath  pleased 
ye  Lord  so  to  order  it  yt  I  haue  bene  more  or  less  interested  and 
vsed  in  all  ye  great  Transactions  of  War  or  Peace  between  ye 
English  and  ye  Natiues,  and  haue  not  spared,  Purse,  nor  Paines, 
nor  Hazards  (very  many  times)  yt  the  whole  Land,  English  and 
Natiues  might  sleepe  in  peace  securely.' 

I  think  it  is  not  generally  known  that  on  March  31, 
1676,  the  Council  of  Massachusetts  revoked,  partially 
at  least,  Roger  Williams'  sentence  of  banishment  in 
these  words : 

Whereas,  Mr.  Roger  Williams  stands  at  present  under  a  sen- 
tence of  Restraint  from  coming  into  this  Colony,  yet  considering 
how  readyly  and  freely  at  all  tymes  he  hath  served  the  English 
interest  in  this  time  of  warre  with  the  Indians,  and  manifested 
his  particular  respects  to  the  Authority  of  this  Colony  in  several 
services  desired  of  him,  and  further  understanding  how  by  the 
last  assault  of  the  Indians  upon  Providence  his  House  is  burned 
and  himself  in  his  old  age  reduced  to  an  uncomfortable  and  dis- 
abled state,  Out  of  Compassion  to  him  in  this  condition  the 
Council  doe  Order  and  Declare  that  if  the  sayd  Mr.  Williams 
shall  see  cause  and  desire  it  he  shall  have  liberty  to  repayre  into 
any  of  our  Towns  for  his  security  and  comfortable  abode  during 
these  Public  Troubles,  He  behaving  himself  peaceably  and  in- 
offensively and  not  disseminating  and  venting  any  of  his  different 
opinions  in  matters  of  religion  to  the  dissatisfaction  of  any.-* 

Had  our  Baptist  historians  been  aware  of  the  above 

•  See  further  in  Appendix  B. 

*  Vol.  X.,  p.  233,  of  the  "  Mass.  Archives."  So  far  as  the  writer  is 
aware,  he  had  the  pleasure  of  first  calling  the  attention  of  the  Baptist  pub- 
lic to  this  interesting  document,  as  also  to  the  existence  of  the  original 
manuscript,  by  pul)lishing  it  in  certain  of  our  religious  newspapers.  It 
had  been  previously  |niblisbed  in  Vol.  X.,  p.  6,  of  the  "  Plymouth  Colony 
Records,"  and  in  Dr.  Ellis'  "  Puritan  Age  in  Massachusetts." 


THE   PURITANS  43 

reference  to  "matters  of  religion"  in  the  revoked  sen- 
tence of  banishment,  they  would  have  found  it  much 
easier  answering  Dr.  H.  M.  Dexter,  who  contended 
that  WiUiams'  "  exclusion  from  the  Colony  took  place 
for  reasons  purely  political,  and  having  no  relation  to 
his  notions  upon  toleration."  ' 

We  doubt  whether  the  "New  England  firebrand,"  as 
George  Fox,  the  Quaker,  called  Williams,  could  ever  be 
so  far  "quenched  "  as  to  be  welcomed  in  close  embrace 
for  any  length  of  time  by  the  "  lord  brethren  "  in  the 
Bay  Colony.  Certainly  for  him  it  was  an  impossibility 
to  stifle  his  convictions  and  muffle  his  mouth  anywhere 
merely  for  his  own  personal  comfort  and  advantage. 
Williams  died  about  eight  years  after  this,  according 
to  the  latest  investigations,  in  the  spring  of  1684. 

We  may  add  that  Williams,  in  a  letter  addressed  to 
Gov.  Endicott,  in  1652, — shortly  after  the  whipping  of 
Holmes, — gives  his  view  of  one  of  the  reasons  of  his 
banishment.      He  says  : 

Let  it  not  be  offensive  in  your  eyes  that  I  single  out  a  point,  a 
cause  of  my  banishment,  wherein  I  greatly  fear  one  or  two  sad 
evils  have  befallen  your  soul  and  conscience.  The  point  is  that 
of  the  civil  magistrates  dealing  in  matters  of  conscience  and 
religion,  as  also  of  persecuting  any  matter  merely  spiritual  and 
religious.  .  .  Sir,  1  must  be  humbly  bold  to  say  'tis  impossible 
for  any  man  or  men  to  maintain  their  Christ  by  their  sword,  and 
to  worship  a  true  Christ  !  to  fight  against  all  consciences  opposite 
theirs  and  not  to  fight  against  God  in  some  of  them,  and  to 
hunt  after  the  precious  life  of  the  true  Lord  Jesus  Christ.  .  .  I 
end  with  an  humble  cry  to  the  Father  of  mercies  .  .  .  that  no 
sleep  may  seize  upon  your  eyes  nor  slumber  upon  your  eyelids 
until    your    serious    thoughts    have    calmly   and   unchangeably, 

'  "  As  to  Roger  Williams,"  p.  79. 


44  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

through  help  from  Christ,  fixed  on  a  moderation  toward  the 
spirit  and  consciences  of  all  mankind,  merely  differing  from  or 
opposing  yours  with  only  religious  and  spiritual  opposition.' 

It  must  be  conceded  that  Williams  had  his  pecu- 
liarities and  his  notions,  but  he  was  far  from  being  a 
"  mere  weathercock,  constant  only  in  inconstancy,"  or 
a  man  with  "  a  windmill  in  his  head."  "How,"  asks 
Backus,  "  came  men  of  university  learning  to  write 
great  volumes  against  a  windmill  and  a  weathercock.''  " 
Dr.  George  E.  Ellis,  in  his  "Puritan  Age"  says:  "A 
windmill  must  be  adjusted  by  breezes  and  points  of  the 
compass,  as  Williams  never  was.  He  never  turned  on 
axis  or  spindle,  though  he  created  a  stiff  breeze  when 
it  was  not  furnished  for  his  use."  No  winds.  methinkS, 
ever  turned  him  from  the  "  rockie  strength  "  of  his  deep 
convictions.  And  now  that  the  more  important  prin- 
ciples of  Roger  Williams  are  everywhere  established 
and  cherished  in  the  land,'^  I  think  it  were  well,  even  at 
this  late  day,  that  our  people  should  erect  to  his 
memory,  as  Governor  Winthrop  suggested,  some  me- 
morial as  a  "mark  of  favor"  for  his  services,  perhaps 


1  The  whole  of  Williams'  ]5ungent  personal  appeal  to  Gov.  Endicott,  for- 
merly a  member  of  his  church  in  Salem,  may  be  found  in  Backus' 
"  History,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  209-212.  Our  readers  will  recollect  that  the 
hanging  of  the  Quakers  occurred  under  Endicott's  administration. 

^  Professor  Gervinus,  in  his  "Introduction  to  the  History  of  the  Nineteenth 
Century,"  speakingof  universal  suffrage,  religious  freedom,  etc  ,  established 
in  Rhode  Island,  says  (as  quoted  by  Straus):  "  These  institutions  have  not 
only  maintained  themselves  here,  but  have  sjiread  over  the  whole  Union. 
They  have  superseded  the  aristocratic  commencements  of  Carolina  and 
of  New  York,  the  high  church  party  in  Virginia,  the  theocracy  in  Massa- 
chusetts, and  the  monarchy  throughout  America ;  they  have  given  laws  to 
one-<iuarter  of  the  globe,  and,  dreaded  for  their  moral  influence,  they  stand 
in  the  background  of  every  democratic  struggle  in  Europe.' ' 


THE   PURITANS  45 

in  that  city  which  has  already  honored  his  friend  whom 
he  styles  "that  noble  soul,"  the  "  prudent  peacemaker," 
the  "ever  honored,  prudent,  and  pious  Mr.  Winthrop," 
and  of  whom  Williams  said,  "  He  tenderly  loved  me 
to  his  last  breath." 

A  few  instances  of  the  early  attempted  suppression 
of  anabaptism  in  the  Massachusetts  Colony  may  here 
be  noticed. 

Among  the  John  Smiths  in  this  country  was  a 
"miller  at  Dorchester,"  who  bore  that  name,  and  who, 
having  espoused  the  cause  of  Roger  Williams,  or  being 
affected  with  similar  anabaptistic  tendencies,  was  also 
banished  in  1635  for  his  "dyvers  dangerous  opinions," 
and  the  next  year  was  found  in  company  with  Williams 
in  exile. 

In  1639  several  individuals  attempted,  according  to 
Benedict,  "to  found  a  Baptist  church"  in  Weymouth, 
with  Robert  Lenthall  as  their  pastor.  All  who  aided 
this  movement  were  either  fined,  whipped,  imprisoned, 
or  banished.  Among  these,  as  we  suppose,  was  another 
John  Smith  and  a  John  Spur,  whose  name  we  shall 
meet  again.  Each  of  these  was  sentenced  to  pay 
twenty  pounds,  the  former  to  be  committed  during  the 
pleasure  of  the  court.  In  after  years  Smith  was  fined 
still  more  heavily  for  certain  alleged  offenses.  Len- 
thall, having  been  censured  by  the  Court,  and  making 
some  retraction,  subsequently  removed  to  Newport,  and 
preached  there  for  a  time  in  the  church  to  which  Dr. 
Clarke  ministered,  as  it  would  appear,  before  he  and 
his  churcti  openly  became  Baptists,  "about  1644."  It 
seems  to  me,  however,  to  be  doubtful  whether  the  at- 
tempted founders  of  the  Weymouth  Church  can   be 


46       NEW  England's  struggles 

properly  regarded  as  l^aptists.  Lenthall  at  that  time 
is  simply  reported  as  holding  that,  "  Only  baptism  was 
the  door  of  entrance  into  the  visible  church,"  and  also 
as  laboring  "  to  get  such  a  church  on  foot  as  all  baptized 
ones  might  communicate  in  without  any  further  trial  of 
them."  Cotton  Mather  classes  him  among  "  the  anom- 
alies." * 

It  is  stated  that  a  colony  of  persons,  chiefly  under 
the  lead  of  Pastor  Newman,  though  some  of  them  may 
have  been  Baptistically  inclined,  emigrated  from  Wey- 
mouth and  elsewhere  about  1643,  and  settled  in  Re- 
hoboth,  in  Plymouth  Colony,  where  the  Lord  "  made 
room  "  for  them  (Gen.  26  :  22).  Rehoboth,  we  may 
remark,  has  an  interesting  history,  especially  for  Bap- 
tists, it  being  the  place  (Seekonk)  where  the  banished 
Williams  made  his  first  temporary  abode ;  where  Oba- 
diah  Holmes,  also  from  Salem,  resided  for  several  years, 
and  formed  a  Baptist  society  in  1649  J  where  Pastor 
Samuel  Newman,  the  persecutor  of  Holmes,  prepared 
his  "  large  and  complete  concordance "  of  the  Bible, 
much  of  it  in  the  night-time,  "  by  the  light  of  pine- 
knots";  where  was  formed,  under  the  leadership  of  Mr. 
Myles,  in  1663,  the  first  permanent  Baptist  church  in 
Massachusetts,  with  its  history  and  its  records  (still  in 
existence)  going  back  nearly  a  score  of  years  to  a 
Baptist  church  in  Wales,  and  where,  on  account  of  its 


1  In  1640  the  town  of  Newport  employed  Mr.  Lenthall  "to  keep  a. 
public  school  for  the  learning  of  youth,"  and  some  have  claimed  this  to  be 
the  first  free  public  school  in  America.  Schools  existed  earlier  than  this  in 
Massachusetts,  but  in  most  instances  were  maintained  by  private  subscrip- 
tion. (See  Savage's  Note  to  Winthrop's  "  History  of  New  England," 
II. ,  2 1 5.)  In  the  course  of  two  or  three  years  Mr.  Lenthall  appears  to  have 
left  Newport  for  England. 


THE   PURITANS  47 

prevalent  Anabaptistry  the  authorities,  both  of  Plym- 
outh Colony  and  the  Bay,  particularly  directed  their 
attention.  Many  Baptist  churches  and  interests  trace 
their  origin  to  this  place.  If  any  persons  wish  to  know 
what  one  woman  of  Rehoboth,  Mrs.  Rachel  (Thurber) 
Scammon,  the  pioneer  Baptist  of  New  Hampshire,  did 
for  the  Baptist  cause  in  that  State,  they  will  find  some 
account  of  her  labors  in  Backus'  "History."  We  may 
add  that  during  this  present  writing  the  inhabitants  of 
Rehoboth  have  celebrated  the  two  hundred  and  fiftieth 
anniversary  of  their  town,  which,  as  they  claim,  was 
once  a  rival  with  Boston  for  Capital  honors. 

In  1643  Lady  Deborah  Moody,  "a  wise  and  an- 
ciently religious  woman  "  (Winthrop),  being  admonished 
by  the  Salem  church  for  denying  infant  baptism, 
thought  it  best,  in  order  to  avoid  further  trouble,  to 
remove  to  Long  Island,  among  the  Dutch.  Many 
others  infected  with  Anabaptism  also  removed  thither. 
It  is  stated  that  on  her  journey  she  stopped  with  the 
family  of  Theophilus  Eaton,  the  first  governor  of  the 
New  Haven  Colony,  and  that  through  her  influence, 
Mrs.  Eaton,  who  was  a  daughter  of  an  English  bishop, 
was  converted  to  Anti-pedobaptist  views.  The  self- 
exiled  woman  met  with  serious  trouble  in  her  new 
home  from  the  Indians,  but  she  did  not  fare  so  badly 
as  the  noted  Antinomian  heresiarch,  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
who  was  there  slain  with  nearly  all  her  family,^ 

J  We  may  here  state  as  a  matter  of  some  interest,  that  Mrs.  Hutchinson, 
during  her  exile  at  Newport,  was  professionally  attended  by  Dr.  John 
Clarke  (who  was  a  physician  as  well  as  preacher),  in  a  case  of  maternity, 
and  that  her  chief  opponent.  Governor  Winthrop,  had  many  questions  to 
ask  of  him  relative  to  an  alleged  monstrous  birth.  A  still  more  prodigious 
birth  is  reported  of  the  unfortunate  Quakeress,  Mary  Dyer, 


48  NEW  England's  struggles 

In  the  same  year,  Nathaniel  Briscoe,  of  Watertown, 
"a  rich  man — a  tanner,"  was  fined  ten  pounds  for 
writing  a  book  protesting  against  a  law  recently  passed 
(1638),  which  enforced  assessments  for  the  maintenance 
of  ministers.  John  Stowers,  before  mentioned,  was 
fined  forty  shillings  "  for  reading  of  divers  offensive 
passages  before  company,  out  of  the  book."  As  to  the 
arguments  of  the  book,  the  ministers  of  that  day  de- 
clared that  "they  were  not  worth  the  answering,  for 
he  that  will  deny  the  exerting  of  the  civil  power  to 
provide  for  the  comfortable  subsistence  of  them  that 
preach  the  gospel,  is  rather  to  be  taught  by  a  cudgel 
than  argument."  In  Part  III.,  under  Section  VII., 
the  reader  will  find  some  sarcastic  comments  by  Isaac 
Backus  on  this  cudgel  argument.  Physical  force  as 
the  persuasive  argument  of  persecutors  seems  to  have 
been  in  use  in  all  ages  and  in  all  countries  of  the  world. 
In  the  exceedingly  able  plea  for  toleration  made  by  the 
English  Baptists  to  Charles  the  Second,^  they  affirm 
that  the  persecutors'  "  strongest  argument  for  the  sup- 
port of  their  religion  is.  Take  him,  Javlor  ! " 

In  the  early  part  of  1644,  Thomas  Painter,  a  poor 
man  of  Hingham,  near  Boston,  who  had  become  an 
Anabaptist  and  would  not  suffer  his  wife  to  have  their 
child  baptized,  being  unable  to  pay  a  fine,  was  for  thus 
"reproaching  the  Lord's  ordinance"  tied  up  and  whip- 
ped, "  which  he  bore  without  flinching,  and  declared  he 
had  divine  help  to  support  him."  Some  of  his  neigh- 
bors did  not  give  him  a  very  irood  character,  yet  he  ap- 
pears to  have  been  worth  whipping.'^     At  a  much  later 

•  See  Cro.sby's  "History,"  Vol.  II.,  pp.  100—144. 

^  We  may  here  note  that  in  1 648  the  Court  proceeded  to  try  Edward 


THE    PURITANS  49 

date  than  this,  Baptists  did  not  receive  much  better 
treatment  in  Hingham.  On  May  28,  1782,  Richard 
Lee,  from  Rhode  Island,  "a  gifted  member  of  one  of 
our  churches  "  (Backus),  having  labored  successfully 
in  the  adjoining  town  of  Scituate,  was  invited  to  hold 
a  meeting  in  Hingham.  A  mob,  armed  with  clubs  and 
stones,  broke  up  the  meeting,  tore  Mr.  Lee's  clothes, 
bruised  and  injured  his  body,  and  after  insulting  him  in 
divers  other  ways,  forcibly  carried  him  and  two  other 
baptized  brethren  out  of  the  town,  and  threatened  his 
life  if  he  ever  came  there  again.  The  case  was  carried 
to  the  Court  in  Boston ;  five  men  out  of  thirteen 
against  whom  complaint  was  entered  were  indicted,  and 
trial  was  appointed  for  January  14,  1783.  Mr.  Lee 
traveled  from  his  home  in  Rhode  Island,  seventy  miles 
to   Scituate,  and  then  twenty-three  more  to  Boston  in 

Starbuck,  of  Dover,  N.  H.,  for  the  "great  misderaener  committed  by 
him  with  profession  of  Anabaptisme."  It  will  be  remembered  that  Han- 
serd  KnoUys,  from  England,  having  been  "  denied  residence  in  the  Massa- 
chusetts," preached  in  Dover  some  four  years  (1638-1641),  and  hav- 
ing embraced  Baptist  principles,  became  in  1645  pastor  of  a  Baptist 
church  in  London.  His  preaching  in  this  country  must  have  been  es- 
sentially Baptistic  according  to  the  testimony  of  Cotton  Mather,  for  he 
speaks  of  him  as  being  a  "  godly  Anabaptist,"  and  as  having  "  a  respect- 
ful character  in  the  churches  of  this  wilderness,"  though  Winthrop  re- 
ports him  as  confessing  to  unchastity.  He  also  charges  him,  as  he  does 
Lenthall,  of  Weymouth,  with  "  holding  some  of  Mrs.  Hutchinson's  opin- 
ions.' '  Through  Winthrop  we  also  learn  that  '  a  sister  of  Mrs.  Hutchin- 
son, the  wife  of  one  [Richard]  Scott,  being  infected  with  Anabaptistry, 
and  going  last  year  [1637]  to  live  at  Providence,  emboldened  Mr.  Wil- 
liams to  make  open  profession  thereof."  He  also  says  of  the  Hutchin- 
sonians  of  Aquiday  [Rhode]  Island,  that  "  divers  of  them  turned  pro- 
fessed Anabaptists."  Mr.  [John  ?]  Clarke  and  many  others  who  were  dis- 
armed at  Boston  as  supposed  sympathizers  with  Mrs.  Hutchinson,  took  up 
their  abode  as  early  as  1638  at  this  island.  Even  John  Cotton  at  one  time 
was  led  far  away  into  Hutchinsonianism. 

£ 


50  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

midwinter  with  witnesses,  and  after  an  expensive  at- 
tendance there  of  some  days,  the  case  was  put  off  till 
April.  Finally  it  was  proposed  by  the  rioters  to  settle 
the  matter  outside  the  Court,  and  a  sum  of  money  was 
paid  him,  "far  short  of  what  many  thought  they  ought 
to  have  done."  Two  of  the  witnesses  referred  to  were 
women  who  made  the  start  in  a  sleigh  ;  but  while  stop- 
ping in  a  friend's  house  in  Hingham  one  evening,  their 
sleigh  was  taken  away  and  cut  to  pieces,  and  their 
horse  could  not  be  found  till  the  next  day.' 

Let  us  now  attend  (November,  1644)  the  Massachu- 
setts General  Court  and  listen  to  the  first  law  which  it 
passed  against  "ye  Anabaptists  " — passed  at  this  time 
because,  as  Winthrop  informs  us,  "  Anabaptistry  in- 
creased and  spread  in  the  country."  For  the  first  law 
it  seems  rather  severe,  and  to  stand  in  marked  con- 
trast with  the  law  in  Nathaniel  Ward's  "  Body  of  Lib- 
erties," adopted  by  the  Colony  in  1641,  which  provides 
that  if  any  strangers  or  people  of  other  nations,  pro- 
fessing the  Christian  religion,  should  fiy  to  them  from 
tyranny  or  oppression  of  their  persecutors,  they 
should  receive  entertainment  and  succor  "  according  to 
that  power  and  prudence  God  shall  give  us."  But, 
alas  for  the  poor  Anabaptists  !  they  were  not  strangers 
or  people  of  other  nations,  but  fellow-citizens.  The 
Puritan  authorities  evidently  entertained  and  practised 

'  See  reference  to  this  whole  matte'  in  Backus'  "  History,"  Vol.  II.,  273, 
and  more  fully  in  his  pamphlet  published  May  10,  1783,  entitled :  "A 
Door  Opened  for  Equal  Religious  Liberty  and  no  Man  can  Shut  It." 
"  Boston  : 
Printed  for  the  Author  and  sold  by 
Philip  Freeman,  at  the  Glove, 
in  Union  Street." 


THE   PURITANS  51 

upon  the  belief  of  Samuel  Willard  that  "  such  a  rough 
thing  as  a  New  England  Anabaptist  is  not  to  be  han- 
dled over  tenderly."  "The  truth  is,"  says  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of   1646  : 

The  great  trouble  we  haue  beene  putt  unto  and  hazard 
also  by  Familistical  and  Anabaptisticall  spirits  whose  conscience 
and  religion  hath  been  only  to  sett  forth  themselves  and  raise 
contentions  in  the  country,  did  provoke  us  to  provide  for  our 
safety  by  a  lawe  that  all  such  should  take  notice  how  unwel- 
come they  should  be  unto  us  either  coming  or  staying. 

The  Massachusetts  Colony  had  indeed  been  trou- 
bled and  provoked  in  many  ways,  and  especially  at  an 
early  date,  by  Antinomian  spirits,  of  whom  Mrs.  Anne 
Hutchinson  was  the  principal  leader  ;  as  also  by  any 
amount  of  heresies  (the  Synod  meeting  in  Cambridge 
in  1637  on  account  of  the  Antinomian  controversy, 
finding  eighty-two  "erroneous  opinions,"  besides  nine 
"unwholesome  expressions");  all  of  which  presents 
a  seemingly  dark  history.  Notwithstanding  all  the 
trouble  from  seducing  and  vexing  spirits,  the  commis- 
sioners from  the  four  united  Colonies  meeting  in  New 
Haven  this  same  year,  1646,  yet  seem  to  have  regarded 
God's  providences  to  these  Colonies  as  remarkably  fa- 
vorable.    They  say  : 

Whereas,  our  good  God  hath,  from  the  first,  don  great 
thinges  for  his  people  in  these  colonyes  in  sundry  respectes, 
worthy  to  be  written  upon  our  owne  harts,  with  a  deepe  charac- 
ter and  impression,  not  to  be  blotted  out  and  forgotten,  and  to 
be  transmitted  to  posteritie  that  they  may  know  the  Lord  and 
how  he  hath  glorified  his  grace  and  mercy  in  our  foundacons 
and  beginninges,  that  they  also  may  trust  in  him  and  walke 
with  a  right  foote  before  him  without  warping  and  declyninge, 


52  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

it  is  desired  by  the  commissioners,  that  all  the  colonyes,  as  they 
may,  would  collect  and  gather  vp  the  many  speciall  providences 
of  Ciod  toward  them  since  their  arrivall  and  setling  in  theis  partes, 
how  he  hath  made  roome  for  ym,  how  his  hand  hath  bin  with 
them  in  laying  their  foundacons  in  church  and  commonwealth, 
how  he  hath  cast  the  dread  of  his  people,  weake  in  themselves, 
vpon  the  Indians,  .  .  .  and  in  all  respects  hath  bin  a  sonne  and 
sheeld  to  vs  ;  and  that  memorialls  being  made,  they  may  be 
duly  communicated  and  seriously  considered,  that  nothing  be 
mistaken,  but  that  history  may  be  compiled  according  to  truth 
with  due  waight,  by  some  able  and  fitt  man  apointed  there- 
onto. 

Evidently  the  Puritan  fathers  did  not  want  any 
writer  to  "sophisticate  away  the  facts"  of  their  his- 
tory, as,  according  to  Mr.  C.  F,  Adams,  most  histo- 
rians have  done.  For  ourself  we  have  aimed  to  pre- 
sent the  facts  truly,  seeking  nothing  to  extenuate  or 
aught  set  down  in  malice. 

With  the  views  of  toleration  which  were  held  by 
the  Puritan  authorities,  they  could  not  be  expected  to 
tolerate  the  Anabaptists.  "  Our  famous  Cotton,"  says 
Increase  Mather  in  his  preface  to  Willard's  "  AV  Sjitor," 
"  who  was  another  Moses  in  respect  to  meekness  and 
Christian  forbearance  .  .  .  would  sometimes  make  a 
zealous  protestation  that  if  magistrates  in  New  Eng- 
land should  tolerate  transgressors  against  the  rules  of 
godliness  ...  he  believed  that  God  would  not  long  tol- 
erate them."  "  God  forbid,"  said  Governor  Thomas 
Dudley,  "  that  our  love  for  the  truth  should  be  growne 
so  could  that  we  should  tolerate  errours."  The  Puri- 
tan fathers,  in  the  words  of  Urian  Oakes,  regarded 
"  an  unboimded  toleration  as  the  first-born  of  all  abom- 
inations."    And  John  Norton  remarked  that  "  to  toler- 


THE  PURITANS  53 

ate  everything  and  to  tolerate  nothing  are  both  intol- 
erable."    But  let  us  now  note  the  law  in  question  : 

Forasmuch  as  experience  hath  plentifully  and  often  proved  yt 
since  ye  first  arising  of  ye  Anabaptists  about  a  hundred  years 
since,  they  have  bene  ye  incendiaries  of  Commonwealths,  and  ye 
infectors  of  persons  in  maine  matters  of  religion,  and  ye  troublers 
of  churches  in  all  places  where  they  have  bene,  and  yt  they  who 
have  held  ye  baptizing  of  infants  unlawful!  have  usually  held 
other  errors  or  heresies  together  therewith,  .  .  and  whereas 
divers  of  this  kind  have  since  our  coming  into  _New  England, 
appeared  amongst  ourselves,  some  whereof  have  (as  others  be- 
fore ym)  denied  ye  ordinance  of  magistracy  and  ye  lawfulness 
of  making  warr,  and  others  ye  lawfulnes  of  magistrats  and  their 
inspection  into  any  breach  of  ye  first  table,  which  opinions,  if 
they  should  be  connived  at  by  us,  are  like  to  be  increased 
amongst  us,  and  so  must  necessarily  bring  guilt  upon  us,  infec- 
tion and  trouble  to  ye  churches  and  hazard  to  ye  whole  Com- 
monwealth- 
It  is  ordered  and  agreed  yt  if  any  person  or  persons  within  ys 
iurisdiction  shall  either  openly  condemne  or  oppose  ye  baptizing 
of  infants,  or  go  about  secretly  to  induce  others  from  ye  approba- 
tion or  use  thereof,  or  shall  purposely  depart  ye  congregation  at 
ye  administration  of  ye  ordinance,  or  shall  deny  ye  ordinance 
of  magistracy  or  their  lawfuU  right  or  authority  to  make  warr  or 
to  punish  ye  outward  breaches  of  ye  first  table,  and  shall  appear 
to  ye  Court  wilfully  and  obstinately  to  continue  therein  after  due 
time  and  means  of  conviction,  every  such  person  or  persons 
shalbe  sentenced  to  banishment. 

The  next  year  (Oct.,  1645)  divers  persons  peti- 
tioned for  "  consideration  of  ye  lawe  against  Anabap- 
tists "  ;  whereupon  the  Court  voted  that  the  law  men- 
tioned "  should  not  be  altered  at  all  or  explained." '     But 

1  One  form  of  the  Court  Records  reads  as  follows  :  "  In  answer  to  ye 
peticon  of  Em  :  Douning,  Nehe  :  Bourne,  Rob*  Sedwicke,  Theo  :  Foule, 
with  others,  for  ye  abrocacon  or  alteracon  of  ye  lawes  against  ye  Anabap- 


54  NEW  England's  vSTruggles 

in  1646  the  Court  granted  the  petition  of  seventy-eight 
persons  "for  ye  continna7ice  of  such  orders,  without 
abrogation  or  weakening,  as  are  in  force  against  Ana- 
baptists and  other  erronios  persons."  ' 

In  view  of  the  allegations  in  the  above  law,  we  may 
remark,  in  the  words  of  Backus  :  "  How  little  care  has 
been  used  by  the  Pedobaptist  party  to  distinguish  the 
innocent  from  the  guilty  among  the  Baptists !  So  far 
from  such  a  care  ...  it  has  been  a  common  trade  of 
that  party  to  ransack  Germany  in  order  to  reproach  the 
English  Baptists  with  errors  and  bad  actions  which  we 
never  had  any  more  concern  with  than  our  accusers 
have  with  the  whoredom  of  Pope  Joan  !  "  In  justice  to 
the  Puritan  authorities  it  must  be  observed  that  some 
of  them  did  not  regard  the  banishment  (of  other  people) 
to  be  much  of  a  punishment,  since,  according  to  John 
Cotton,  it  the  rather  conferred  upon  the  banished  a 
larger  freedom — a  view  of  the  matter  which  simply 
added  insult  to  injury. 

In  the  very  year  the  foregoing  law  was  passed,  Roger 
Williams,  in  answer  to  John  Cotton's  letter  concerning 
the  power  of  the  magistrate  in  matters  of  religion,  pub- 
lished the  "  Bloudy  Tenent  of  Persecution  for  Cause  of 
Conscience,  discussed  in  a  Conference  betweene  Truth 
and  Peace."  In  1647  Cotton  responded  to  this  in 
"The  Bloudy  Tenent,  washed  and  made  white  in  the 
Bloud  of  the  Lambe  ;  being  discussed  and  discharged 
of   Bloud-Guiltinesse  by  just  Defence,"  to  which  "the 

tists,  and  laws  yt   requires  speciall  allowance  for  new   comers   residing 
here,  itt  is  ordered  jt  the  lawes  in  yr  peticon  menconed  shall  not  be  altered 
or  explayned  at  all."     "  New  comers  "  were  not  allowed  to  remain  in  the 
Colony  above  tliree  weeks  without  license. 
^  For  this  petition,  see  Appendix  C. 


THE    PURITANS  55 

discusser,"  Williams,  in  1652  made  reply  in  his 
"  Bloody  Tenent  yet  more  Bloody  by  Cotton's  En- 
deavor to  wash  it  white  in  the  Blood  of  the  Lambe ;  of 
whose  precious  Blood,  spilt  in  the  Blood  of  his  Servants 
and  of  the  Blood  of  millions  spilt  in  former  and  later 
wars  for  Conscience'  sake,  that  most  Bloody  Tenent  of 
persecution  for  cause  of  Conscience,  upon  a  second 
trial,  is  found  now  more  apparently  and  more  notori- 
ously guilty." 

About  this  time  there  appears  to  have  been  a  wide 
difference  of  views  among  the  churches  as  to  the  subject 
of  infant  baptism,  most  churches  baptizing  infants,  one 
at  least  of  whose  parents  was  a  church-member  in  full 
communion  ;  others  baptizing  children  if  either  of  their 
grandparents  was  such  a  member,  though  the  imme- 
diate parents  were  not  ;  and  others  still,  who  "  thinke 
that  whatever  be  ye  state  of  ye  parents,  baptisme  ought 
not  to  be  dispensed  to  any  infants  whatsoever."  In  view 
of  this  diversity  of  opinion,  and  for  fear  lest  Anabaptistic 
views  and  practices  should  extend  farther,  the  General 
Court,  acting  as  Moses,  and  having  the  care  of  all  the 
churches,  invited,  on  May  15,  1646,  the  Aaronic  Elders 
and  Messengers  of  the  United  Colonies,^  "  Plimouth, 
Connectecott,  and  Newe  Haven,"  to  meet  with  those 
of  Massachusetts  Bay  "  at  Cambridge  upon  the  first 
day  of  September  now  next  ensewing,  there  to  discusse, 

1  In  1643  the  four  Colonies :  Massachusetts,  Plymouth,  Connecticut,  and 
New  Haven  (Rhode  Island  being  left  out  in  the  cold),  united  in  defense 
against  the  Indians  and  for  other  purposes,  and  thereafter  two  men,  "  all 
in  church  fellowship,"  were  chosen  annually  from  each  Colony  to  act  as 
Commissioners  of  the  "  United  Colonies  of  New  England."  This  was  a 
beginning  of  the  greater  confederation  of  the  United  States  of  America,  and 
was  never  favorably  regarded  by  the  British  Crown. 


56  NEW  knglaxd's  struggles 

dispute  and  cleare  up,  by  the  word  of  God,  such  ques- 
tions of  church  government  and  discipline  in  ye  things 
aforementioned,  or  any  other  as  they  shall  thinke  need- 
ful and  meete."  They  continued  at  this  work,  at  in- 
tervals, two  years,  until  the  summer  of  1648,  when, 
with  the  approval  of  the  court,  they  published  a  "  Plat- 
forme  of  Church-Discipline  gathered  out  of  the  word  of 
God."  According  to  this  platform,  heresy  is  "to  be 
restrained  and  punished  by  civil  authority,"  and  the 
"coercive  power  of  the  Magistrate"  is  to  be  put  forth 
as  exigencies  shall  require.  A  striking  instance  of  the 
Court's  generosity  to  this  Synod  is  found  in  their  order 
"  to  send  twelve  gallons  of  sack,  and  six  gallons  of 
white  wine  as  a  small  testimony  of  ye  Court's  respect 
to  yt  reverend  Assembly."  Some  have  charitably  sup- 
posed that  the  gift  was  m  part  occasioned  by  the  pre- 
vailing sickness  of  that  time. 

A  confirmation  of  the  above  declared  diffusion  of 
Anabaptistic  views  is  found  in  a  letter  written  by 
Thomas  Hooker,  of  Connecticut,  in  1646,  to  Thomas 
Shepard,  of  Cambridge  :  "  I  like  those  Anabaptists  and 
ther  opinion  every  day  worse  than  other."  And  he 
speaks  of  "  an  ill  presage  that  unlesse  you  be  very 
watchful  you  will  have  an  army  in  the  field  before  you 
know  how  to  prepare  or  oppose."  He  mentions  that 
his  "  Notes  on  Pedobaptisme  "  are  now  out  of  his  hand.* 

1  Hooker,  "  the  light  of  the  Western  churches  "  (Cotton  Mather),  died 
the  next  year,  July  7,  1647,  "as  the  sun  was  setting."  The  chronicler 
adds :  "  The  same  hour  of  the  day  died  blessed  Calvin,  that  glorious 
light."  Hooker's  son-in-law,  Thomas  Shepard,  "  a  soul -ravishing  minis- 
ter," and  "a  soul-melting  preacher"  of  the  gospel,  died  1649,  aged  43; 
Gov.  Winthrop  died  the  same  year ;  John  Cotton  three  years  later. 
Hence  an  elegiac  strain  (on  the  latter  personage),  thus  runs: 


THE   PURITANS  57 

It  was  Hooker's  "  resolve  that  he  would  have  an  ar- 
gument able  to  remove  a  mountain  before  he  would 
recede"  from  the  doctrine  or  practice  of  infant  bap- 
tism, which  resolve  some  thirteen  years  later  was 
adopted  by  the  "matchless  Mitchell,"  of  Cambridge, 
as  a  shield  against  the  arguments  of  President  Dunster, 
to  whom,  though  his  pastor,  he,  being  but  a  young 
man,  was  "fearful  to  go  needlessly"  on  account  of  "a 
venom  and  a  poison  in  his  insinuations  and  discourses 
against  pedobaptisme."  It  is  said  that  in  after  years 
Mitchell  "  preached  more  than  half  a  score  of  ungain- 
sayble    sermons "    in    defense   of    infant    baptism.      It 


And  after  Winthrop's,  Hooker's,  Shepard  s  hearse. 
Doth  Cotton's  death  call  for  a  mourning  verse  ? 
Thy  will  be  done.  .   . 

Whilst  he  was  here,  life  was  more  life  to  me. 
Now  he  is  not,  death  hence  less  death  shall  be. 


And  again : 


In  Boston's  orb  Wmthrop  and  Cotton  were  ; 
These  lights  extinct,  dark  is  our  hemisphere. 


Some  have  conjectured  that  a  spirit  of  rivalry  existed  between  Messrs. 
Cotton  and  Hooker,  and  that  this  may  have  been  one  reason  why  the 
latter  removed  from  Newtown  (Cambridge)  to  Hartford.  Yet  Mr.  Hooker 
is  thus  eulogized  by  Cotton  : 

'Twas  of  Geneva's  worthies  said  with  wonder, 
(Those  worthies  three),  Farel  was  wont  to  thunder, 
Viret  like  rain  on  tender  grass  to  shower, 
But  Calvin,  lively  oracles  to  pour. 

AH  these  in  Hooker's  spirit  did  rem.iin, 
A  son  of  thunder  and  a  shower  of  rain; 
A  pourer  forth  of  lively  oracles, 
In  saving  souls,  the  summ  of  miracles. 

Messrs.  Cotton,  Hooker,  and  Davenport  (who  was  Wilson's  successor  in 
Boston),  had  the  honor  of  being  invited  to  the  Westminster  Assembly  of 
(Presbyterian)  Divines,  but  did  not  accept  the  invitation.  The  remains 
of  Cotton  and  Davenport  now  lie  in  the  same  tomb,  close  to  the  tomb  of 
the  Winthrops,  in  the  King's  Chapel  burial  place,  Boston. 


58  NEW  England's  struggles 

should  be  understood  that  the  "  pedobaptisme  "  of  that 
day  maintained,  in  the  words  of  Thomas  Shepard,  1649, 
that  "  children  are  members  of  the  visible  church  and 
their  membership  continues  when  adult,  and  the  chil- 
dren of  believers  are  to  be  accounted  of  the  church 
until  they  positively  resist  the  Gospel."  About  "three 
months  beiore  his  going  to  the  Lord,"  he  wrote  a  letter 
which  was  subsequently  published,  in  which  he  advo- 
cates "the  Church-membership  of  children,  and  their 
Right  to  Baptisme."  A  similar  view  was  advanced  by 
John  Norton,  the  "judicious  and  eagle-eyed  seer,"' 
who  held  that  "  children  confederated  in  their  parents 
as  public  persons  are  made  [born]  Church-members," 
and  that  "this  distinct  Church-membership  gives  them 
a  proper  right  unto  baptism."  See  also  a  previous  ref- 
erence to  the  works  of  Cobbett  and  Hooker. 

We  come  now  to  the  year  165 1.  Thomas  Dudley, 
who  had  been  governor,  was  now  deputy  governor,  and 
we  can  see  what  his  influence  would  be  in  the  matter 
of  persecution  from  the  lines  of  his  own  composing, 
found  in  his  pocket  after  his  decease : 


'  Of  Norton,  the  successor  of  John  Cotton,  in  the  First  Church  of  Boston 
(died  1663),  a  eulogist  thus  writes: 

The  schoolmen's  doctors,  whomsoe'er  they  call 
Subtile,  seraphic,  or  angelical  : 
Dull  souls  !  their  tapers  burnt  exceeding  dim  ; 
They  might  to  school  again  to  learn  of  him. 
Lombard  must  out  of  date  :  we  now  profess 
Norton  the  master  of  the  Sentences. 
Scotus  a  dunce  to  him  ;  should  we  compare 
Aquinas,  here,  none  to  be  named  are. 

One  naturally  wonders  what  a  few  feeble,  illiterate  "Anabaptists" 
could  do  in  a  contest  with  these  eminent  Puritan  divines  whose  names 
are  so  highly  eulogized. 


THE   PURITANS  59 

I,et  men  of  God  in  Courts  and  Churches  watch 
O'er  such  as  do  a  toleration  hatch, 
Lest  that  ill  egg  bring  forth  a  cockatrice, 
To  poison  all  with  heresie  and  vice. 
If  men  be  left  and  otherwise  combine. 
My  Epitaph's,  I  dy'd  no  libertine. 

A  visitor  to  Boston  on  Thursday,  September  5th, 
the  Lecture  and  "  mercate  "  day  of  the  town,  would 
have  witnessed,  with  a  large  crowd,  at  the  head  of 
"King"  Street,  near  where  the  meeting-house  stood, 
and  where  the  old  State  House  now  stands,  the  public 
whipping  of  Obadiah  Holmes,  a  "lowly"  Baptist 
preacher  of  the  gospel  of  Christ/     He  with  two  other 

1  A  few  months  before  this  one  might  have  witnessed  not  a  whipping 
but  a  burning  in  this  same  place  ;  not  a  burning  of  witches  or  heretics,  but 
of  an  heretical  book  on  the  atonement  written  by  William  Pynchon,  a 
magistrate  of  Springfield.  This  author  held  that  Christ  did  not  bear  our 
sins  by  God's  imputation,  and  did  not  suffer  the  torments  of  hell  to 
redeem  our  souls  from  them.  Of  course  he  was  not  suffered  to  go  un- 
molested by  the  civil  authorities.  They  also  appointed  John  Norton  to 
answer  the  erroneous  ti'eatise.  Norton  maintained  ' '  that  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ  as  God-man  and  Mediator,  according  to  the  will  of  the 
Father,  and  his  own  voluntary  consent,  fully  obeyed  the  law,  doing  the 
command  in  the  way  of  works,  and  suffering  the  essential  punishment 
of  the  curse  in  a  way  of  obedient  satisfaction  unto  divine  justice,  thereby 
exactly  fulfilling  the  first  covenant  ;  which  active  and  passive  obedience 
of  his,  together  with  his  original  righteousness  as  a  surety,  God  of  his 
rich  grace,  actually  imputeth  unto  believers,  whom,  upon  the  receipt 
thereof  by  the  grace  of  faith,  he  declareth  and  accepteth  as  perfectly 
righteous,  and  acknowledgeth  them  to  have  a  right  unto  eternal  life." 
This  view  was  publicly  endorsed  by  Cotton,  Wilson,  Richard  Mather, 
Symmes,  and  Thompson,  as  "the  life  of  our  souls  and  of  our  religion." 
In  reference  to  burning  at  the  stake,  I  may  state,  that  in  Palfrey's 
"  History  of  New  England,"  mention  is  made  of  a  burning  of  a  Negro 
murderess  in  Boston  in  1681,  "the  first  that  has  suffered  such  a  death 
in  New  England,"  (Mather's  Journal).  In  New  York,  in  1741,  twenty- 
two  persons  were  hung,  and  eleven  burned  as  participants  in  an  alleged 
Negro  conspiracy.     Four  of  those  who  were  hung  were  whites. 


6o  NEW  ENGLAND'S   vSTRUGGLES 

"erroneous  persons,"  Dr.  John  Clarke  and  John  Cran- 
dall,  of  Newport,  R.  I.,  were  holding  a  religious  meeting 
on  Lord's  Day,  July  20,  in  the  house  of  William  Witter, 
an  aged,  blind,  and  infirm  Baptist  in  the  outskirts  of 
Lynn,  when,  while  Dr.  Clarke  was  preaching  (from 
Rev.  3  :  10)  to  Witter's  household  and  to  "four  or  five 
strangers  that  came  in  unexpectedly  after  he  began," 
they  were  apprehended  by  the  authorities,  and  later  in 
the  day  were  forced  to  go  some  two  miles  to  the  village 
to  attend  the  regular  meeting  of  the  place,  where,  by 
putting  on  their  hats  and  by  reading  a  book  while  the 
minister  (Mr.  Cobbett  or  Whiting)  was  praying,  they 
showed  the  disrespect  to  the  service  and  the  worshipers 
which  they  had  threatened  to  do  if  forced  to  attend. 
"Watched  over  that  night  [in  the  ordinary]  as  Theeves 
and  Robbers,"  they  were  committed  the  next  day  to 
the  prison  in  Boston  (then  in  Prison  Lane,  now  Court 
Street)  till  the  last  of  the  month,  when  they  were  or- 
dered by  the  Court  to  pay  a  fine  or  be  ''  well  whipt." 
Crandall,  whose  offense  was  deemed  less  heinous,  was 
fined  but  five  pounds,  and  was  cleared  by  some  in- 
formality. Some  one  without  the  knowledge  of  Dr. 
Clarke  paid  his  fine,  ;^20,  and  he  was  discharged.  On 
page  212,  of  the  above  cited  volume  in  the  Massachu- 
setts archives,  may  be  seen  a  letter  written  by  Dr.  Clarke 
"from  the  prison,"  accepting  the  Court's  proposal  for 
a  public  disputation  on  points  of  doctrine  with  the 
ministers  of  the  Bay,  which,  however,  through  no  fault 
of  Mr.  Clarke,  was  never  held.  The  letter  reads  as 
follows  : 

Whereas,  it   pleased    this    honored    Court    yesterday  to  con- 
demne  the  faith  and  order  which  I  hold  and  practice,  and  after 


THK   PURITANS  6l 

you  had  passed  your  sentence  upon  me  for  it,  was  pleased  to 
expresse  I  could  not  maintaine  the  same  against  yr  ministers, 
and  thereupon  publickly  proffered  me  a  dispute  with  them  ;  be 
pleased  by  these  few  lines  to  understand  I  readily  accept  it,  and 
therefore  doe  desire  you  wold  appoint  the  time  when,  and  the 
p'son^  with  whom,  in  that  publick  place  whar  I  was  condemned, 
I  might  with  fredome  and  without  molestation  of  the  civ  ill  powre, 
dispute  that  point  publickly,  when  I  doubt  not  but  by  the  strenth 
of  Christ  to  make  it  good  out  of  his  last  will  and  testament  unto 
which  nothing  is  to  be  added,  nor  from  which  nothing  is  to  be 
diminished  ;  thus  desiring  the  father  of  lights  to  shine  forth  by 
his  powre  to  expell  ye  darknes. 

I  remaine  yr  well  wisher, 

John  Clarke. 

from  the  prison 
this  I,  6,  51  (August  I,  1651). 

In  all  our  civil  and  religious  history  no  character,  we 
think,  stands  out  purer  and  nobler  than  does  that  of 
Dr.  John  Clarke,  the  noble  advocate  of  the  "  full 
liberty  of  Christian  concernments."  Backus,  in  his 
"  History"  says  :  "The  Massachusetts  writers  have  been 
so  watchful  and  careful  to  publish  whatever  they  could 
find,  which  might  seem  to  countenance  the  severities 
they  used  toward  dissenters  from  their  way,  that  I  ex- 
pected to  find  something  of  that  nature  against  Mr. 
Clarke,  but  have  happily  been  disappointed."  Since 
Mr.  Backus'  day,  however,  one  or  two  writers  have 
sought  to  discredit  Mr.  Clarke's  motives,  especially  in 
the  Lynn  transaction.  But  to  impute — as  Dr.  Palfrey 
has  done,  though  with  many  "ifs,"  and  as  Dr.  Dexter 
has  done  without  an  "if,"  or  scarcely  its  equivalent — 
to  Dr.  Clarke  as  the  reason  for  visiting,  under  appoint- 


1  Clarke  hoped  that  the  renowned  John  Cotton  would  be  that  person. 

F 


62  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

ment  of  his  church,  an  aged  church-member  in  a  re- 
tired part  of  Lynn,  at  his  request,  and  in  the  quietest 
manner  possible,  a  desire  and  design  to  be  persecuted, 
and  this  too  for  political  and  selfish  ends,  is  to  my 
mind  not  only  a  monstrous  stretch  of  the  imagination, 
but  an  insinuation  baseless  and  unjust  in  the  highest 
degree.  1  wonder  that  the  Puritan  authorities  were 
not  bright  enough  to  detect  the  motive  of  this  scheme, 
and  thus  to  frustrate  the  schemer's  cherished  purpose 
by  forbearing  his  persecution.  And  then  to  adduce, 
as  Dr.  Dexter  has  done,  Holmes'  utterance,  "  You 
have  struck  me  as  with  roses,"  as  an  evidence  that  he 
was  not  cruelly  whipped,  one  is  at  a  loss  how  to  char- 
acterize and  not  seem  discourteous.' 

Holmes'  offense  was  deemed  by  the  Massachusetts 
authorities  far  less  excusable  than  was  that  of  Dr. 
Clarke,  and  they  did  not  seem  desirous  to  accept  any 
proffered  payment  of  his  fine.  Because  he  had  been 
an  "excommunicate  person,"  and  had  taken  upon  him- 
self to  preach  and  to  "  baptize  such  as  were  baptized 
before,"  he  was  fined  thirty  pounds,  to  be  paid  by  the 
first  day  of  next  Court,  "or  else  be  well  whipt."  This 
threatened  whipping  was  strictly  illegal,  for  according 
to  the  law  of  1644  he  should  only  have  been  banished. 
Holmes  thought  it  wrong  for  himself  or  for  his  friends 
to  pay  the  fine,  and  so  on  the  day  appointed  we  see 

1  I  can  sympathize  somewhat  with  many  things  that  Dr.  Dexter  has 
written  about  Roger  Williams,  but  while  his  mistake,  in  one  instance, 
of  putting  Clarke  for  Holmes  is  easily  pardonable,  yet  his  unwarranted 
and  uncharitable  assumption  in  regard  to  Dr.  Clarke's  motives,  and  his 
objectionable  manner  of  treating  so  grave  a  theme,  cannot  fail  to  cast 
suspicion  upon  his  fairness  as  a  critic.  .See  more  fully  on  this  subject, 
Dr.  11.  M.  King's  pamphlet,  "Early  Baptists  Defended." 


THE   PURITANS  63 

him,  after  the  pulling  off  of  his  clothes,  tied  to  the 
whipping  post,  while  he  is  telling  the  people  that  he  is 
about  to  be  baptized  in  afflictions  that  so  he  may  have 
fellowship  with  his  Lord,  and  then  the  executioner, 
"spitting  on  his  hand  three  times,  as  many  affirmed, 
with  a  three-corded  whip  giving  him  therewith  thirty 
strokes  "  in  a  manner  "grievous  to  behold."  "  Not  for 
all  Boston,"  said  the  sufferer,  "would  I  give  my  body 
into  their  hands  thus  to  be  bruised  upon  another  ac- 
count." When,  as  at  times,  it  has  seemed  to  me  almost 
impossible  that  any  mortal  man  could  endure  thirty 
separate  blows  with  a  three-corded  whip — ninety  lashes 
in  all — on  the  naked  back, — though,  if  history  be  true, 
many  a  poor  Quaker  woman's  naked  back  has  in  New 
England  been  visited  with  more  blows  than  these, — I 
have  tried  to  think  that  possibly  only  ten  strokes  with 
the  three-stringed  whip  were  inflicted,  as  was  threatened 
in  the  case  of  John  Hazell,  who  speaks  of  this  as  being 
"  the  same  number  that  the  worst  malefactors  that  were 
there  punished  had."  Refusing  the  refreshment  of 
stimulants,  he  yet,  through  the  "  spiritual  manifestation 
of  God's  presence"  sustaining  him,  was  enabled  to  say 
to  the  magistrates,  "  You  have  struck  me  as  with 
roses  "  ;  and  yet  an  early  writer,  Governor  Joseph  Jenks, 
of  Rhode  Island  (born  1656),  declares  "he  was  whipped 
thirty  stripes,  and  in  such  an  unmerciful  manner  that 
in  many  days,  if  not  some  weeks,  he  could  take  no  rest 
but  as  he  lay  on  his  knees  and  elbows,  not  being  able 
to  suffer  any  part  of  his  body  to  touch  the  bed  whereon 
he  lay."  Two  men,  John  Spur  and  John  Hazell,  who 
ventured  to  show  him  a  little  sympathy,  chiefly  by 
shaking    hands,    came    near    sharing    the    same   fate. 


64  NEW  KXOLAND'S   STRUCxGLES 

Governor  l-jidicolt  sentenced  them  to  pay  a  fine  of 
forty  shillings  each,  or  be  well  whipped.  Hazell  says  : 
"The  strokes  I  was  enjoined  by  the  court  to  have  were 
ten  with  a  three-corded  whip."  They  were  both  re- 
leased by  some  one  paying  their  fines.  Backus  states 
that  Hazell,  one  of  Mr.  Holmes'  brethren  of  Rehoboth, 
was  above  three-score  years  old,  and  infirm  in  body, 
and  had  traveled  nearly  fifty  miles  to  visit  his  beloved 
brother  in  prison.  After  his  own  release  from  prison 
he  visited  a  friend  about  six  miles  from  Boston,  where 
he  was  taken  sick  and  died  in  a  few  days.  One  natu- 
rally queries  whether  Obadiah  Holmes  ought  not  to 
have  some  memorial  other  than  the  shadow  of  a  whip- 
ping post .'' 

Of  course  the  report  of  the  above  proceedings  was 
soon    borne   to    England,'    and    many   remonstrances 

1  Messrs.  Clarke  and  Williams  were  in  England  early  the  next  year, 
and  a  work  of  the  former,  entitled  "  111  Newes  from  New  England,  or  a 
narrative  of  New  England's  persecution,  wherein  is  declared  that,  while 
Old  England  is  becoming  New,  New  England  is  becoming  Old,"  etc., 
was  issued  in  1 65 2,  from  a  London  press.  Dr.  Clarke  remained  in 
England  some  twelve  years  in  the  interest  of  Rhode  Island  colony,  and 
in  1663  was  successful  in  obtaining  a  charter,  which  lasted  one  hundred 
and  seventy-nine  years,  and  which  contained  this  guarantee  of  religious 
liberty:  '■'■Our  royal  will  and  pleasure  is  that  tio  pe7-son  "within  the  said 
colony  at  any  time  hereafter,  shall  be  in  any  wise  molested,  punished, 
disquieted,  or  called  in  question,  for  any  differences  of  opinion  iti  matters 
of  religion,  icho  do  not  actually  disturb  the  civil  peace  of  our  said  colony; 
but  that  all  and  eveiy  person  or  persons  may,  from  time  to  time,  and  at 
all  times  hereafter,  freely  and  fully  have  and  enjoy  his  own  and  their  own 
judgments  and  cofiscien,es  in  matters  of  religious  concernment.^^  Roger 
Williams  truly  said  of  this  charter,  that  it  "excels  all  in  New  England 
or  in  the  world,  as  to  the  souls  of  men."  It  was  Williams'  desire  at  the 
start  that  his  colony  "might  be  for  a  shelter  for  persons  distressed  for 
conscience."  In  1638  a  voluntary  government  was  instituted  at  Provi- 
dence, each  person  "promising  to  submit  himself,  in  active  or  passive 


THE    PURITANS  65 

against  such  outrageous  doings  were  erelong  returned 
to  this  country.  The  very  next  year  after  Holmes  was 
whipped,  Sir  Richard  Saltonstall,  one  of  our  early 
magistrates,  but  then  in  England,  thus  wrote  to  Messrs 
Cotton  and  Wilson,  of  the  Boston  church  : 

It  doth  not  a  little  grieve  my  spirit  to  heare  what  sadd  things 
are  reported  dayly  of  your  tyranny  and  persecutions  in  New 
England,  as  that  you  fyne,  whip,  and  imprison  men  for  their 
consciences.  First  you  compell  such  to  come  into  your  assem- 
blyes  as  you  know  will  not  joyne  with  you  in  worship,  and  when 
they  show  their  dislike  thereof  and  witnes  against  it,  then  you 
styrre  up  your  magistrates  to  punish  them.  .  .  These  rigid  wayes 
have  layed  you  very  lowe  in  the  hearts  of  the  saynts.  I  doe 
assure  you  I  have  heard  them  pray  in  the  publique  assemblies 
that  the  Lord  would  give  you  meeke  and  humble  spirits,  not  to 
stryve  soe  much  for  uniformity  as  to  keepe  the  unity  of  the  Spirit 
in  the  bond  of  peace.  .  .  I  hope  you  doe  not  assume  to  your- 
selves infallibilitie  of  judgment. 

Cotton  died  toward  the  close  of  this  year,  1652,  but 
he  lived  long  enough  to  answer  the  above  communica- 
tion.     He  says  : 

Wee  are  amongst  those  whom  (if  you  knew  us  better)  you 
would  account  of  peaceable  in  Israel  (2  Sam.  20  :  19).  Yet 
neither  are  wee  so  vast  in  our  indulgence  or  toleration  as  to 
thinke  the  men  you  speake  of  suffered  an  unjust  censure.  .  .  As 
for  his  (Holmes)  whipping,  it  was  more  voluntarily  chosen  by 

obedience,  to  all  such  orders  or  agreements  as  shall  be  made  for  public 
good  of  the  body,  in  an  orderly  way,  by  the  major  consent  of  the  present 
inhabitants  .  .  .  only  in  civil  things.'"  And  the  body  of  laws  framed 
under  the  first  charter,  in  1647,  closes  with  these  memorable  words  : 
"And  otherzvise  tkati  thus  what  is  herein  forbidden,  all  men  may  walk  as 
their  consciences  persuade  them,  every  one  in  the  name  of  his  God.  And 
let  the  Lambs  of  the  Most  High  walk  in  this  colony  without  molestation, 
in  the  name  of  Jehovah  their  God  for  ever  and  ever.'''' 


66  NEW  England's  struggles 

him  than  intlicted  on  liini,  and  llie  imprisonment  of  either  of 
them  was  no  detriment.  1  believe  they  fared,  neither  of  them, 
better  at  home  ;  and  1  am  sure  Hohiies  had  not  been  so  well 
clad  for  many  years  before. 

He  then  adds  : 

Wee  believe  there  is  a  vast  difference  between  men's  inven- 
tions and  God's  institutions.  Wee  fled  from  men's  inventions, 
to  which  wee  else  should  have  been  compelled.  Wee  compell 
none  to  men's  inventions.  If  our  wayes  (rigid  wayes  as  you 
call  them)  have  layed  us  low  in  the  hearts  ot  God's  people,  yea, 
and  of  the  saints  (as  you  stile  them),  wee  doe  not  believe  it  is 
any  part  of  their  saintship. 

After  speaking  of  some  Anabaptists  and  Antino- 
mians,  who  carry  their  dissent  more  privately  and  in- 
offensively, as  being  tolerated  in  his  church,  and  borne 
withal  in  much  meekness,  he  then  says : 

We  are  far  from  arrogating  infallibility  of  judgment  to  our- 
selves, or  affecting  uniformity.  Uniformity  God  never  required, 
infallibility  he  never  granted  us. 

We  may  add  that  John  Wilson,  the  colleague  with 
Cotton  for  twenty  years,  who  is  represented  by  his  con- 
temporaries as  "  one  of  the  most  humble,  pious,  and 
benevolent  men  of  the  age,"  and  who  had  "largeness 
of  heart  as  the  sand  of  the  sea,  to  do  good  to  all,"  is 
nevertheless  charged  by  Holmes  (unjustly,  Cobbett 
says,)  with  striking  and  cursing  him  in  the  Court.  On 
his  dying  bed,  being  asked  what  were  the  sins  which 
were  bringing  the  displeasure  of  God  upon  the  coun- 
try, he  replied  :  "  Separation,  Anabaptism,  and  Korah- 
ism."  '  A  poetic  eulogist  of  that  time  thus  speaks  of 
Wilson's  virtues : 


'  See  more  fully  in  Morton's  "  Memorial,"  p.  21 1. 


THE   PURITANS  67 

Firm  stood  he  'gainst  the  faniilist 

And  Antinomian  spirit  strong  ; 
He  never  loved  the  Sep'ratist 

Nor  yet  the  Anabaptists'  throng  ; 
Neither  the  tolerator's  strain, 

Nor  Quaker  spirit  could  he  brook. 

Increase  Mather  tells  us  that 

Mr.  Wilson,  that  blessed  man  of  God  who  like  the  apostle 
John  excelled  in  the  grace  of  charity,  laid  those  of  his  family 
under  solemn  adjuration  that  they  should  not  at  any  time  enter 
into  the  Anabaptists'  assembly,  and  refers  to  a  sermon  of  his  on 
Jer.  29  :  8,  where  he  says,  "  I  charge  you  do  not  once  go  to  hear 
them,  for  whatsoever  they  may  pretend,  they  will  rob  you  of  or- 
dinances, rob  you  of  your  souls,  rob  you  of  your  God."  Blessed 
Wilson  !  thy  body,  thy  dust,  remaineth  still  in  Boston,  but 
where  is  thy  spirit  ?  where  is  thy  zeal  ? 

Little  did  these  Puritan  divines  dream  that  a  revival 
in  the  two  Baptist  churches  in  Boston  would  be  largely 
the  means  of  saving  even  the  "  Old  South  "  Church 
from  going  over  with  so  many  others  to  Unitarianism. 
In  proof  that  this  is  not  all  vain  boasting,  we  quote 
the  following  from  Dr.  Benjamin  B.  Wisner's  "His- 
tory of  the  Old  South  Church."  After  giving  some 
account  of  the  widespread  declension  of  doctrinal  be- 
lief and  spiritual  life,  he  says  : 

In  the  fall  of  1803  God  was  pleased  to  pour  out  his  Spirit  on 
the  Baptist  churches  then  in  this  city  and  grant  them  a  precious 
revival  of  religion  which  continued  with  power  above  a  year. 
[In  1804  Dr.  Stillman's  church  reported  eighty-three  baptisms 
and  Mr.  Baldwin's  church  one  hundred  and  twenty-eight  ;  and 
in  1805  the  former  reported  forty-four  baptisms,  and  the  latter 
sixty-seven.]  Members  of  this  (Old  South)  and  other  Congrega- 
tional churches  frequented  the   meetings  of  the  Baptists  during 


68  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

this  season  of  special  religious  attention.  Dr.  Joseph  Eckley 
(the  then  pastor  of  the  Old  South)  and  Drs.  Stillman  and  Bald- 
win had  before  l^een  in  tlie  habit  of  attending  each  other's  pre- 
paratory lectures.  By  this  means  Ur.  Eckley  was  brought  into 
the  midst  of  the  re\ival.  The  good  man's  heart  became 
warmed.  He  attended  other  meetings  of  the  Baptists  besides 
their  preparatory  lectures,  and  took  part  in  them  in  exhortation 
and  prayer.  Thus  a  reviving  influence  was  brought  into  this 
congregation  which  had,  for  a  time,  to  struggle  for  existence, 
but  has,  by  the  grace  of  God,  continued  even  until  now  (1830), 
and  rendered  this  again  a  flourishing  vine  and  caused  it  to  send 
forth  branches  all  around,  that  have  taken  root  and  are  bearing 
fruit  to  the  glory  of  God. 

He  then  adds  that  not  only  did  Dr.  Eckley  "  throw 
more  energy  and  point  into  his  preaching,"  but  "was 
anxious  that  some  of  those  special  means  might  be  em- 
ployed whose  happy  influence  he  had  felt  and  witnessed 
among  his  Baptist  brethren."  A  proposition  to  have 
public  lectures  given  by  himself  and  other  clergymen 
was  favored  by  a  considerable  majority  of  the  members 
with  some  disapproval,  while  the  pew-holders  decided 
adversely  against  it.  Yet  on  March  13,  1804,  both 
church  and  congregation  voted  to  "  form  themselves 
into  a  society  for  religious  improvement."  "  Thus  began 
the  Tuesday  evening  meeting,  at  which  at  first  there 
was  but  one  brother  of  the  church  who  felt  sufficient 
confidence  to  lead  in  prayer,  and  which  for  a  time  en- 
countered reproaches  and  opposition  which  to  us  at  the 
present  day  seem  almost  incredible,  but  which  was  well 
attended  and  made  a  blessing  from  the  beginning,  and 
has  lived  and  flourished  until  now."  As  Christian  peo- 
ple pass  along  Tremont  Street,  Boston,  by  the  btuying- 
ground  adjoining  Park  Street  Church,  they  may  well 


THE   PURITANS  69 

pause  and  give  thanks  to  God  for  his  faithful  servants, 
Eckley,  StiHman,  and  Baldwin,  whose  mortal  remains 
repose  therein. 

While  persecution  was  thus  raging  in  this  country, 
Roger  Williams,  on  visiting  England  a  second  time, 
thus  addressed  a  "  Committee  [of  Parliament]  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel,"  of  which  Cromwell  was  a 
member : 

Oh,  that  it  would  please  the  Father  of  Spirits  to  afifectthe  heart 
of  Parliament  with  such  a  merciful  sense  of  the  soul  bars  and 
yokes  which  our  fathers  have  laid  upon  the  neck  of  this  Nation, 
and  at  last  to  proclaim  a  true  and  absolute  soul-freedom  to  all 
the  people  of  the  land  impartially,  so  that  no  person  be  forced  to 
pray  nor  pay  otherwise  than  as  his  soul  believeth  and  consenteth. 

It  would  be  tedious  and  profitless  here  to  speak 
at  large  of  individual  or  particular  instances  of  the 
fines,  imprisonments,  seizures  of  goods,  setting  in  the 
stocks,  public  whippings,  disfranchisements,  and  ban- 
ishments, which  were  inflicted  on  those  who  refused  to 
attend  the  regular  service,  or  to  bring  their  children  to 
baptism  (so  called),  or  who  in  any  way  showed  their 
disrespect  for  this  ordinance.  It  may  justly  be  con- 
ceded that  the  Baptists  of  that  day  were  more  "  con- 
temptuous and  turbulent  "  than  they  are  at  the  present. 
We  do  not  now  think  it  necessary  or  proper,  if  present 
at  an  infant  baptizing  or  sprinkling,  to  turn  our  backs 
upon  it,  or  to  leave  the  meeting-house,  or  to  protest 
against  it  on  the  spot  as  being  unscriptural,  as  Presi- 
dent Dunster,  on  some  provocation  indeed,  but  con- 
trary to  special  request,  did  on  one  occasion,  a  protest 
which   he  afterward  acknowledged  to  have  been  "  not 


70  NEW  ENGLAND'S   vSTRUGGLES 

seasonably  spoaken."  '  Palfrey  says  :  "  It  may  be  that 
Dunster,  after  the  treatment  which  his  fellow-believers 
from  Rhode  Island  had  received,  felt  self-rebuked  for 
his  silence,  and  that  this  was  what  prompted  him  to 
bear  his  testimony  [at  different  times]  against  the  ad- 
ministration of  baptism  to  infants."  Still,  had  they  be- 
haved even  more  circumspectly  than  we  do,  the  results 
would  not  have  been  greatly  different.  And  were  our 
attendance  on  such  occasions  enforced,  as  theirs  was  at 
times,  we  might  not  improve  much  upon  their  example. 
Following  the  order  of  time  we  come  now  to  the 
year  1656,  when  two  Quaker  women,  Ann  Austin  and 
Mary   Fisher,  from   England,  arrived  in  Boston,'^  and 


1  It  must  be  remembered  that  it  was  common,  or  at  least  not  a  singu- 
lar occurrence  in  the  ancient  congregations  for  persons  to  rise  after  the 
sermon  and  express  approbation  or  disapproval  of  its  different  parts. 
We  see  an  example  of  this  in  a  certain  Sabbath  service  held  at  Plym- 
outh, in  1632,  when  Gov.  .^Vinthrop  and  Rev.  Mr.  Wilson,  of  Boston, 
were  present.  "On  the  Lord's  day  was  a  sacrament  which  they  did 
jiartake  in,  and  in  the  afternoon  Mr.  Roger  Williams  (according  to 
their  custom)  propounded  a  (juestion  [during  the  session  they  discussed, 
at  Williams'  request,  the  lawfulness  of  calling  an  unregenerate  man  by 
the  name  of  Goodman  Such  an  One  (!),  and  Governor  Winthrop  was 
asked  his  opinion  thereupon,  but  whether  this  was  the  question  here  re- 
ferred to,  is  uncertain]  to  which  their  pastor,  Mr.  Smith,  spake  briefly  ; 
then  Rev.  Mr.  Williams  prophesied,  and  after,  tlie  Governor  of  Plym- 
outh (Bradford)  spake  to  the  question  ;  after  him  the  Elder  (William 
Brewster),  then  some  two  or  three  more  of  the  congregation.  Then 
the  Elder  (according  to  Acts  13  :  14,  15,)  desired  the  Governor  of 
Massachusetts  and  Mr.  Wilson  to  speak  to  it,  which  they  did.  When 
this  was  ended,  Mr.  Fuller  (the  Deacon)  put  the  congregation  in  mind 
of  the  duty  of  contribution,  upon  which  the  Governor  and  all  the  rest 
went  down  to  the  deacon's  seat  and  put  into  the  box,  and  then  re- 
turned. ' ' —  Winthrop' s  Join  na  I. 

^  These  women  were  at  once  closely  shut  up  in  prison,  and  their  naked 
bodies  were  examined  to  see  if  the  marks  of  witches  were  not  on  them. 
(It  was  held  that  the  jiricking  of  these  devil-marks  with  a  pin  did  not  hurt 


THE   PURITANS  71 

when  the  Puritan  Court  passed  its  first  law  against 
the  "accursed  and  pernisiouse  sectt  of  heritiques 
commonly  called  Quakers."  It  was  a  bitter  law  both 
against  them  and  their  harbingers  and  abettors  ;  but 
still  severer  laws  were  to  follow.  Great  as  were  the 
sufferings  of  the  Baptists  in  the^  Bay  Colony,  they  were 
as  nothing  compared  to  the  persecutions  endured  by 
the  Quakers.  Indeed  these  were  pursued  by  the  Puri- 
tans with  a  spirit  which  seems  well-nigh  malignant. 
The  preamble  of  the  law  reads  thus  : 

Whereas  there  is  a  cursed  sect  of  hteretickes  lately  risen  up  in 
the  world  which  are  commonly  called  Quakers,  who  take  upon 
them  to  be  immediatelie  sent  of  God  and  infallibly  assisted  by 
the  Spiritt  of  God  to  speake  and  write  blasphemous  opinions,  de- 
spising government,^  and  the  order  of  God  in  the  churches  and 


the  witches.)  After  about  five  weeks  of  close  imprisonment  and  half-way 
starvation,  they  were  sent  back  to .  England.  Mary  Fisher  afterward 
went  to  Turkey  among  the  Mahometans,  and  there  delivered  her  burden 
to  the  Sultan,  Mahomet  the  Fourth,  who  gave  orders  that  no  injury  should 
be  done  her  in  his  dominions.  It  is  said  that  the  Turks  commonly  rever 
ence  a  crazy  person  as  one  inspired. 

'  This  assertion  is  probably  too  sweeping.  In  a  petition  of  certain  Quak- 
ers to  the  Plymouth  General  Court,  in  1678,  they  contend  only  against  the 
payment  of  ministerial  rates,  and  not  of  civil  taxes.  They  desired  the  au- 
thorities "to  distinguish  between  the  country  rate  and  preachers'  mainte- 
nance." 1  hey  say  :  "  We  suppose  it  well  enough  known  we  have  never 
been  backward  to  contribute  our  assistance  in  our  estates  and  persons, 
where  we  could  act  without  scruple  of  conscience,  nor  in  the  particular 
case  of  the  country  rate,  according  to  our  just  proportion  and  abilities,  until 
this  late  continuance  of  mixing  your  preachers'  maintenance  therewith,  by 
the  which  we  are  made  uncapable  to  bear  any  part  of  what  just  charge 
may  necessarily  be  disbursed  for  the  maintenance  of  civil  government,  a 
thing  we  could  always  readily  do  until  now."  And  then  they  go  on  to 
give  certain  reasons  for  not  paying  clerical  taxes.  They  think  the  gospel 
should  be  freely  preached,  and  that  ministers  should  get  their  living  as 
other  men.     They  assert  that  true  ministers  never  received  anything  ex- 


72  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

Commonwealth,  speakinge  evill  of  dignities,  reproaching  and  re- 
vileing  magistrates  and  ministers,  seekinge  to  turne  the  people 
from  the  fayth  and  gayne  proselites  to  their  pernitious  wayes  "  ; 
therefore  the  Court  enacted  that  every  person  who  shall  import 
or  bring  "  within  this  jurisdiction  any  known  Quaker  or  (2uakers 
or  any  other  blasphemous  ha^retickes  shall  pay  or  cause  to  be 
payed  the  fine  of  one  hundred  pounds,  and  carry  them  backe 
to  the  place  from  whence  he  brought  them,"  he  meanwhile 
remaining  in  prison  till  the  fine  is  paid  or  security  gi\en. 
"  What  (Quakers  soeuer  shall  arrive  in  this  country  from  foraigne 
parts  or  come  into  this  jurisdiction  from  any  parts  adjacent, 
shalbe  forthwith  committed  to  the  howse  of  correction,  and  at 
their  entrance  to  be  seuerely  whipt,  and  by  the  master  thereof  to 
be  kept  constantly  to  worke,  and  none  suffred  to  converse  or 
speake  with  them  dureing  the  time  of  their  imprisonment,  which 
shall  be  no  longer  than  necessity  requireth  "  for  their  deporta- 
tion. "Any  person  who  shall  knowingly  import  into  any  har- 
bour of  this  jurisdiction  any  Quakers  bookes,  or  writinges  con- 
cerning their  devilfish  opinions  shall  pay  for  euery  such  booke  or 
writinge  .  .  .  the  some  of  fiue  pounds.  And  whosoeuer  shall 
disperse  or  conceale  any  such  booke  or  writinge  (shall)  pay  fiue 
pounds  for  the  dispersing  or  concealinge  of  euery  such  booke  or 
writinge."  And  any  person  who  shall  "defend  the  ha;retticall 
opinions  of  the  sajd  Quakers  or  any  of  their  bookes  or  papers  as 
aforesajd,  ex  annimo,"  shall  be  fined  for  the  first  lime  forty 
shillings,  for  the  second  time  "  fower  pounds,"  and  if  still  per- 
sisting to  "defend  and  maintajne  the  sajd  Quakers'  ha^retticall 
opinions  they  shall  be  comitted  to  the  howse  of  correction  till 
there  be  convenjent  passage  for  them  to  be  sent  out  of  the  land." 

All  these  orders  were,  on  Oct.  21,  1656,  "published 
in  setierall  places  of  Boston  by  beate  of  drumme." 
The  next  year  it  was  enacted  that  "  any  person  or  per- 
sons within  this  jtu-isdiccon  who  shall  henceforth  enter- 

cept  from  those  whom  they  had  spiritually  profited,  and  they  did  not 
esteem  the  Congregational  ministers  of  Plymouth  Colony  as  true  ministers, 
and  therefore  they  could  not  conscientiously  assist  in  supporting  them. 


THE    PURITANS  73 

tajne  and  conceale  any  such  Quaker  or  Quakers  or 
other  blasphemous  haereticks,  knowing  them  so  to  be, 
shall  forfeite  to  the  countrye  forty  shillings  for  euery 
howers  entertajnment  or  concealement."  And  it  was 
further  ordered  that 

If  any  Quaker  or  Quakers  shall  presume,  after  they  haue  once 
suffered  what  the  lawe  requireth  [the  severe  whipping  and  the 
being  sent  away],  to  come  into  this  jurisdiccon,  euery  such  male 
Quaker  shall  for  the  first  offence  [of  returning]  haue  one  of  his 
cares  cutt  off  and  be  kept  at  worke  in  the  howse  of  correction  till 
he  cann  be  sent  away  at  his  owne  charge,  and  for  the  second 
offence  shall  haue  his  other  eare  cutt  off,  &c.,  and  kept  at  the 
howse  of  correction  as  aforesaid,  and  every  woman  Quaker  that 
hath  suffered  the  lawe  heere  that  shall  presume  to  come  into  this 
jurisdiccon  shall  be  severely  whipt  and  kept  at  the  howse  of  cor- 
rection at  worke  till  she  shall  be  sent  away  at  hir  oune  charge,  and 
so  also  for  hir  coming  againe  she  shallbe  alike  vsed  as  aforesajd  ; 
and  for  euery  Quaker,  he  or  she  that  shall  a  third  tjme  heerin 
againe  offend,  they  shall  haue  theire  tounges  bored  through  with 
a  hot  iron  and  kept  at  the  house  of  correction,  close  to  worke, 
till  they  be  sent  away  at  theire  oune  charge.  And  it  is  further 
ordered  that  all  and  euery  Quaker  arising  from  amongst  our- 
selves shall  be  dealt  with  and  suffer  the  like  punishment  as  the 
lawe  provides  against  forreigne  Quakers. 

In  the  year  after  this,  October,  1658,  upon  a  petition 
signed  by  twenty-five  citizens  of  Boston  (among  whom 
were  John  Wilson  and  John  Norton),  urging  the  authori- 
ties to  greater  severities  against  the  Quakers,  and  pro- 
posing that  a  return  from  banishment  should  be  made 
a  capital  offense,  the  Court,  by  only  a  majority  of  one, 
however,  sentenced  "  every  person  or  persons  of  the 
cursed  sect  of  the  Quakers  ...  to  banishment  vpon 
payne  of  death,"  which  penalty  was  "according  to  the 


74  NK^V  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

example  of  PLngland  in  their  provision  against  Jesuits." 
Again,  in  May,  1661,  the  Court  enacts  that  every 
vagabond  Quaker  in  the 

toune  wherein  he  or  she  is  taken,  be  stripped  naked  from  the 
middle  vpwards,  and  tjed  to  a  carts  tayle,  and  whipped  through 
the  toune,  and  from  thence  imediately  conveyed  to  the  conn- 
stable  of  the  next  toune  towards  the  borders  of  our  jurisdiction  ; 
and  so  from  connstable  to  connstable  till  they  be  conveyed  through 
any  the  outwardmost  tounes  of  our  jurisdiction. 

And  if  such  vagabond  Quaker  shall  return  again, 
then  he  is  to  be  treated  in  like  manner.  But  on  return- 
ing a  third  time  they  are  to  be  committed  unto  the 
house  of  correction,  where  if  not  released 

they  shall  be  branded  with  the  letter  R  on  theire  left  shoulder 
and  be  severely  whipt  and  sent  away  in  manner  as  before,  and 
if  after  this  he  or  shee  shall  returne  againe  then  they  shall  be 
proceeded  against  as  incorrigible  rogues  and  ennemys  to  the 
comon  peace  according  to  the  lawe  made  anno  1658,  for  theire 
banishment  on  payne  of  death. 

Doubtless  the  authorities  thought  that  the  severity 
of  the  threatened  punishment  would  deter  the  Quakers 
from  coming  or  returning  to  the  province ;  but  in  this 
they  were  mistaken.  Some  Quakers  obeying,  as  they 
felt,  the  voice  of  God,  chose  to  return,  and  four  of 
them,  including  one  woman,  Mary  Dyer,  were  hanged 
in  1659-61,  on  Boston  Common.  They  were  all  hanged 
probably  to  a  branch  of  a  tree  which  was  reached  by 
a  ladder.  Some  of  the  victims  were  buried  without 
coffins  in  a  hole  near  the  gallows.  The  following  is 
Mary  Dyer's  letter  to  the  Court  :  ' 

•  In  Vol.  X.,  page  266,  of  the  State  Archives,  is  a  letter  written  by 
Mary  Dyer  the  day  before  her  expected  execution.     It  bears  this  super- 


THE    PURITANS  75 

From  marie  dire  to  ye  Generall  court  this  present  26th  of  the 
8th  month  '  59,  assembled  in  ye  towne  of  boston,  in  New  Ing- 
land,  greeting  of  grace,  mercy,  peace  to  every  soul  yt  doth  well  : 
tribulation,  anguish,  and  wrath  to  all  yt  doth  evill. 

Whereas  it  is  said  by  many  of  you  yt  I  am  guilty  of  mine  own 
death  by  my  coming,  as  you  cal  it,  voluntarily  to  boston  ;  I 
therefore  declare  unto  every  one  that  hath  an  ear  to  hear  ;  yt  in 
ye  fear,  peace,  and  love  of  God  I  came,  and  in  wel  doing  did 
and  still  doth  commit  my  soul  as  to  a  faithful  Creator,  who  for 
this  very  end  hath  preserved  my  life  untill  now  through  many 
trialls  and  temptations  having  held  out  his  royall  sceptre  unto 
mee  by  which  I  have  accesse  into  his  presence  and  have  found 
such  favour  in  his  sight  as  to  offer  up  my  life  for  the  truth  and 
people's  sake's,  whom  the  enimie  hath  moved  you  again  without 
a  cause,  to  make  such  laws  as  by  him  is  intended  utterly  to  root 
out  and  keep  back  from  among  you  ye  holy  people  and  seed 
which  ye  Lord  hath  blessed  forever,  called  by  ye  children  of 
darkness  cursed  quakers,  for  whom  the  Lord  is  rising  to  plead 
with  all  such  as  shal  touch  his  anointed,  or  doe  his  prophets  any 
harm,  therefore  in  the  bowels  of  love  and  compassion  I  beseech 
you  to  repeal  al  such  laws  as  tend  to  this  purpose  and  let  the 
truth  and  Servants  of  God  have  fre  passage  among  you,  for 
verily  ye  enimie  that  hath  done  this  cannot  in  any  measure 
countervail  ye  gread  damage  yt  will  fal  upon  you  if  you  continue 
to  keep  such  laws.  Woe  is  me  for  you.  Was  there  ever  ye  like 
laws  heard  of,  made'by  such  as  profess  Christ  come  in  the  flesh  ? 
Have  such  no  other  weapons  to  fight  with  against  spiritual 
wickedness  as  you  call  it  ?  Of  whom  take  you  counsel  ?  Search 
with  the  light  of  Christ  in  you,  and  that  will  show  you  of  whom 
as  it  hath  done  me,  and  many  more,  who  hath  been  disobedient, 
and  deceived,  as  you  now  are,  which  secret  light  as  you  come 
into,  you  will  not  repent  that  you  were  kept  from  shedding 
blood,  though  'twere  by  a  woman  :     Its  not  my  own  life  1  seek 


scription  :  "Mary  Dyer's  letter  to  the  Court,  presented  by  her  sonne 
and  read  in  open  Court  26th  8  mo.  [Oct.],  1659."  We  give  the  letter, 
which  is  somewhat  difficult  to  decipher,  as  we  find  it  in  "Gleanings  at 
Seventy  Five,"  published  in  1883,  by   Henry   Longstreth,  Philadelphia. 


76  NEW  England's  struggles 

(for  I  chusp  rather  to  suffer  with  ye  people  of  Ciod  than  to  enjoy 
the  pleasures  of  Egypt),  but  ye  life  of  ye  seed,  which  I  know  ye 
Lord  hath  blessed,  and  therefore  seeks  ye  enimie  thus  vehe- 
mently ye  life  thereof  to  destroy  as  in  al  ages  he  did.  Oh  ! 
hearken  not  unto  him  I  beseech  you  for  ye  seed's  sake,  which  is 
one  in  al,  and  deare  in  ye  sight  of  God,  which  they  that  touch, 
toucheth  the  apple  of  his  eye  and  cannot  escape  his  wrath,  of 
which  I  having  felt  cannot  but  persuade  al  men  yt  I  have  to  doe 
withal,  especially  you  who  nameth  ye  name  of  Christ,  to  depart 
from  such  iniquity  as  bloodshed  even  of  ye  saints  of  ye  most 
High.  I  have  no  self  end  ye  Lord  knows,  for  if  my  life  were 
freely  granted  by  you  it  would  not  be  accepted  soe  long  as  I  shal 
dayly  see  or  hear  the  sufferings  of  my  dear  brethren  and  sisters 
(with  whom  my  life  is  bound  up)  as  I  have  this  2  years,  and  now 
its  likely  to  increase  even  unto  death  for  noe  evil  doing  but  being 
among  you  ;  therefore  let  my  request  have  as  much  acceptance 
with  you  (if  you  be  Christians)  as  Esther  had  with  Ahasuerus, 
whose  relation  is  short  of  that  that  is  betwixt  Christians,  and  my 
request  is  ye  same  as  hers  was  to  ye  king  who  said,  not  that  he 
had  mad  a  law  and  it  was  dishonorable  for  him  to  revoke  it,  but 
when  he  understood  that  those  people  were  so  prised  by  her  and 
so  nearly  concerned  her,  as  in  words  of  truth  and  soberness  I 
have  here  expressed  you,  appealing  to  ye  faithful  and  true  wit- 
ness of  God  ;  which  is  one  in  al  conscienses,  before  whom  wee 
must  all  appeare,  with  whom  I  do  and  shal  eternally  rest  in  ever- 
lasting joy  and  peace.  Whether  you  will  hear  or  forbear,  I  am 
clear  of  your  blood,  but  you  cannot  be  so  of  ours,  but  wil  be 
charged  therewith  by  ye  Lord,  before  whom  al  your  coverings 
will  be  too  narrow  for  you,  but  to  me  to  live  is  Christ  and  to  die 
is  gain  though  I  had  not  your  48  hours  warning  for  the  prepara- 
tion of  the  cruel,  and,  in  your  esteme,  cursed  death  of  mee, 
Marie  dire.  Know  this  also  yt  if  through  ye  enmity  you  shall 
declare  yourselves  worse  than  ye  heathen  king  and  confirme 
your  law,  though  'twere  but  by  taking  the  life  of  one  of  us,  yt 
the  Lord  will  overthrou-  you  and  your  laws  by  his  righteous  judg- 
ment and  plagues  powered  justly  on  you  who  now  whilst  you  are 
warned  hereof  and  tenderly  sought  unto  avoid  ye  one  by  re- 
moving  ye  other,  will  not  hear  nor  obey  the   Lord  nor  his  serv- 


THE   PURITANS  ']^ 

ants,  yet  will  he  send  more  of  his  servants  among  you,  soe  your 
end  shall  be  frustrated  yt  think  to  restrain  thein  you  call  quakers 
from  cominge  amonge  you  by  anything  you  can  do  to  them,  yea, 
verily  he  hath  a  seed  that  suffereth  among  you.  .  .  Oh,  let  none 
of  you  put  this  good  day  far  from  you,  which  verily  in  ye  light  of 
ye  Lord  1  see  approaching  to  many  in  and  about  Boston,  which 
is  the  bitterest,  darkest  professing  place,  and  soe  to  continue  soe 
long  as  you  [have]  don,  yt  I  ever  heard  of.  O  let  the  time  past 
suffice  of  such  a  profession  as  brings  forth  such  fruits  as  these 
laws  are.  In  love  and  in  the  spirit  of  meekness  I  again  beseech 
you,  for  I  have  no  enmity  to  the  persons  of  any,  but  you  shall 
know  that  God  is  not  mocked,  but  what  you  sow  yt  shal  you  reap 
from  him  yt  will  render  to  every  one  according  to  their  deeds 
don  in  his  body,  whether  good  or  evil,  even  so  be  it  saith  Marie 
dire,  who  also  desireth  yt  ye  people  called  quakers  in  prison 
that's  in  ye  town  of  Boston  at  ye  time  of  our  execution,  may  ac- 
companie  us  to  ye  place  and  see  ye  bodyes  buried. 

In  consequence  of  a  petition  of  her  son,  she  was  to 
be  reprieved  at  the  last  moment,  though  this  was  un- 
beknown to  her,  on  condition  that  she  stand  on  the 
gallows  with  a  rope  around  her  neck  till  the  others 
were  hanged  ;  and  if  found  in  the  colony  forty-eight 
hours  after  that,  to  be  immediately  executed. 

When  the  three  who  were  first  sentenced  (William 
Robinson,  Marmaduke  Johnson,  and  Mary  Dyer)  were 
led  to  execution,  accompanied  with  armed  soldiers,'  and 

'  Edward  Wanton  was  one  of  the  guard  on  this  occasion,  but  so  im- 
pressed was  he  with  the  behavior  of  the  condemned,  that  on  going  home 
he  said  :  "  Alas,  mother  !  we  have  been  murdering  the  Lord's  people  "; 
and  taking  off  his  sword,  put  it  by  with  a  solemn  vow  never  to  wear  it 
again.  He  afterward  removed  to  Scituate,  where  he  carried  on  ship- 
building, and  where  he  also  built  up  a  flourishing  society  of  Friends,  of 
which  he  became  the  minister.  But  even  here,  in  1678,  he  was  forced 
to  pay  a  fine  of  ten  pounds  for  "  disorderly  joining  himself  to  his  now 
wife  in  marriage,"  or,  in  other  words,  for  marrying  in  Quaker  fashion. 


;»8  NKW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

with  the  noise  of  drums  to  drown  the  voices  of  the 
condemned,  she  walked  between  the  two,  joining  hands 
with  them  till  they  reached  the  gallows.  After  seeing 
her  companions  hanging  dead  before  her,  she  also 
stepped  upon  the  ladder ;  but  after  her  clothes  were 
tied  about  her  feet,  the  halter  adjusted  about  her  neck, 
and  her  face  covered  with  a  handkerchief,"  which  the 
priest — Wilson — lent  the  hangman — "  '  just  as  she  was 
to  be  turned  off  a  cry  was  heard :  "  Stop,  for  she  is 
reprieved."  She  was  roughly  taken  down  from  the 
ladder,  and  carried  back  to  prison,  but  shortly  after 
was  conveyed  toward  Rhode  Island,  and  thus  returned 
to  her  home.  Her  husband,  William  Dyer,  with  a  fam- 
ily of  several  children,  one  of  whom  was  named  Maher- 
shalalhashbaz,  lived  in  Rhode  Island,  where  for  many 
years  he  held  government  office.  Not  many  weeks 
after  this  she  felt  constrained  to  leave  her  home,  and 
to  return  to  Boston  in  supposed  obedience  to  the  will 
of  God,  in  order  to  effect  a  possible  repeal  of  the  un- 
righteous law  of  banishment  upon  pain  of  death.  And 
at  this  time,  on  June  i,  1660,  she  was  led  forth  from 
prison  "about  nine  of  the  clocke  in  the  morning,"  and 
the  sentence  of  death  was  executed  on  her. 

In  Dr.  Ellis'  "  Puritan  Age  in  Massachusetts  "  is  a 
petition  of  William  Dyer  to  Governor  Endicott,  written 
between  the  reprieve  and  the  execution,  in  which  he 
pleads  with  tears  for  the  life  of  his  wife,  while  con- 
demning her  "inconsiderate  madness."  The  original 
is  found  in  Vol.  X.,  p.  266,  of  the  State  Archives. 
The  petition,  dated  Portsmouth  (R.  I.),  May  27,  1660, 
reads  as  follows  : 

1  See  William  Sewel's  "History,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  411, 


THE   PURITANS  79 

Honored  Sir. — It  is  no  little  grief  of  mind  and  sadness  of 
hart  that  I  am  necessitated  to  be  so  bould  as  to  supplicate  your 
honored  self  with  the  hon''"''  Assembly  of  your  Generall  Court, 
to  extend  your  mercy  and  favor  once  agen  to  me  and  my  chil- 
dren. Little  did  I  dream  that  I  should  ever  have  had  occasion 
to  petition  you  in  a  matter  of  this  nature  ;  but,  so  it  is,  throw 
the  divine  providence  and  your  benignity  my  sonn  obtained  so 
much  pity  and  mercy  att  your  hands  as  to  enjoy  the  life  of  his 
mother. 

Now  my  supplication  to  your  honors  is  to  begg  affectionately 
the  life  of  my  deare  wife.  'Tis  true  I  have  not  seene  her  above 
this  halfe  yeare,  and  therefore  cannot  tell  how,  in  the  frame  of 
her  spirit,  she  was  moved  thus  again  to  run  so  great  a  hazard  to 
herself  and  perplexity  to  me  and  mine,  and  all  her  friends  and 
well  wishers  ;  so  it  is  from  Shelter  Island,  about  by  Pequid,  Nar- 
ragansett,  and  to  the  town  of  Providence,  she  secretly  and 
speedily  journeyed,  and  as  secretly  from  thence  came  to  your 
jurisdiction.  Unhappy  journey,  may  I  say  ;  and  woe  to  that 
generation  and  age  that  gives  occasion  thus  of  grief  and  trouble 
to  those  that  desires  to  be  quiet,  by  helping  one  another  (as  I 
may  say),  to  hazard  their  lives  for  I  know  not  for  what  end  or 
to  what  purpose.  If  her  zeale  be  so  greate  as  thus  to  adventure, 
oh,  let  your  favor  and  pitye  surmounte  itt,  and  save  her  life. 
Let  not  your  forwonted  compassion  be  conquered  by  her  incon- 
siderate maddness;  and  how  greately  will  your  renowne  be  spread, 
if  by  so  conquering  you  become  victorious.  What  shall  I  say 
more  ?  I  know  you  are  all  sensible  of  my  condition,  and  let  the 
reflect  be,  and  you  will  see  what  the  petition  is,  and  what  will 
give  me  and  mine  peace.  Oh,  let  mercies  wings  once  more  soar 
above  justice  ballance,  and  then  whilst  I  live  shall  I  exalt  your 
goodness.  But  otherwise  'twill  be  a  languishing  sorrowe,  yea, 
soe  great  that  I  should  gladly  suffer  the  blow  att  once  much 
rather.  I  shall  forbear  to  trouble  your  honors  with  words,  neither 
am  I  in  a  capacity  to  expatiat  myself  at  present.  I  only  say  this  : 
yourselves  have  been,  and  are,  or  may  be,  husbands  to  wife  or 
wives,  and  so  am  I,  yea  to  one  most  dearelye  beloved.  Oh,  do 
not  you  deprive  me  of  her,  but  I  pray  give  her  me  out  again, 
and  I  shall  bee  soe  much  obliged  forever  that  I  shall  endeavor 


8o  NEW  ENGLAND'vS   STRUGGLES 

continually  lo  utter  my  thanks  and  render  your  love  and  honor 
most  renowned.      Titty  mee.      I  begg  itt  with  teares,  and  rest 
your  most  humble  suppliant, 

W.    Dyer. 

Hard  as  was  the  fate  of  Mary  Dyer,  we  think  it  pref- 
erable to  the  horrid  scourgings  from  the  three-corded, 
knotted  whip  which  were  endured  by  her  Quaker  sisters, 
Anne  Coleman,  Mary  Tompkins,  Alice  Ambrose,  Eliza- 
beth Hooton,  and  others  in  the  Puritan  Colony  of  Mas- 
sachusetts. No  one,  I  am  sure,  can  read  any  full  ac- 
count of  these  cruel  barbarities  without  feelings  of 
sickening  and  horror.  And  I  wonder  not  at  the  belief 
formerly  entertained,  even  by  some  others  than  Quakers, 
that  the  horrors  of  King  Philip's  war  were  a  swift- 
coming  judgment  of  God  on  these  persecuting  colonies  ; 
nor  do  I  wonder  at  the  starting  of  the  story,  and  its 
spread  beyond  the  seas,  or  at  its  gaining  considerable 
credence,  that  God  had  cursed  the  blood-stained  country 
around  Boston  with  barrenness,  so  that  no  grain  would 
grow  and  mature  as  formerly  within  twenty  miles  of 
that  town.'  Without  good  reason,  and  yet  very  natu- 
rally, did  the  early  Quakers  think  that  they  saw  God's 
righteous  judgment  specially  expressed  against  Gov- 
ernor Endicott  and  "high  priest  Norton,"  even  in  the 
manner  of  their  deaths.'^ 

^  Cotton  Mather,  in  his  "  Magnalia,"  Lib.  IL,  p.  270,  says  :  "Some  of 
the  principal  grains,  especially  our  wheat  and  our  pease,  fell  under  an 
unaccountaljle  blast  from  which  we  are  not  been  even  unto  this  day  de- 
livered, and  besides  that  constant  frown  of  heaven  upon  our  husbandry, 
recurring  every  year,  few  years  have  passed  wherein  either  worms  or 
droughts  or  some  consuming  disasters  have  not  befallen  the  labour  of 
the  husbandman." 

■■*  See  William  Sewel's  "  History  of  the  People  called  Quakers,"  Vol. 
L,  pp.  598.  600. 


THE   PURITANS  8 1 

Still  the  authorities  of  the  Bay,  in  speaking  of  the 
Quakers,  professed  to  "  desire  theire  life  absent  rather 
than  their  death  present."  When  the  first  three  were 
led  to  execution,  the  governor  told  them,  "  We  have 
made  many  laws  and  endeavored  by  several  ways  to  keep 
you  from  us.  I  desire  not  your  death."  Zechariah 
Symmes  and  John  Norton  waited  on  the  prisoners  with 
religious  conversation,  and  so  they  were  not  hanged 
without  benefit  of  clergy.  By  request  of  the  Court, 
Mr.  Norton  drew  up  "  a  brief  Tractate  concerning  the 
doctrine  of  the  Quakers,"  and  so  well  pileased  were  the 
authorities  with  his  performance  that  they  made  him 
a  grant  of  five  hundred  acres  of  land.  See  Volume 
X.,  page  266,  of  the  Archives.  On  page  250  of  said 
volume  is  a  petition  of  Mary  Hams,  in  May,  1659,  ^^ 
go  along  with  her  Quaker  brother,  Samuel  Shattuck 
— who  had  been  "whipped  thirty  stripes,"  and  on 
whom  the  sentence  of  death-banishment  had  been  pro- 
nounced— to  Reverend  Mr.  Norton's,  being  "  persuaded 
that  if  it  please  god  to  set  it  home  to  his  Soule,  Mr, 
Norton  may  Convince  him  by  som  Arguments  he  may 
use  to  turn  him  from  his  way."  This  conference,  if 
ever  held,  failed  of  success.  Two  years  later,  on  an  ap- 
peal of  the  English  Quakers  to  the  King,  a  ship  was 
hurriedly  dispatched  to  this  country,  and  the  banished 
Shattuck,  being  one  of  the  passengers,  was  intrusted 
with  a  mandamus  from  "  Charles  R."  forbidding  any 
more  Quaker  executions  here.  On  reaching  Boston, 
first  day,  Nov.  24,  1661,  he  proceeded  to  Gov^ernor 
Endicott's  house,  where  he  took  the  liberty  to  keep  on 
his  hat  while  he  handed  him  the  royal  mandate,  and  had 
the  further  privilege   of  hearing  him  say  :  "  We  shall 


82  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLEvS 

obey  his  majesty's  command.  "  Me  had  also  the  i:>nvi- 
lege  thenceforward  of  staying  in  this  country,  though 
he  was  subsequently  imprisoned  for  not  paying  his 
fines,  and,  for  the  offense  of  charging  the  Court  and 
Country  with  shedding  innocent  blood,  was  sentenced 
to  pay  five  pounds  or  be  whipped.  On  page  281  of 
the  volume  previously  named,  Eunice  Cole  has  a  peti- 
tion, written  Oct.  8,  1662,  wherein  she  states  that  "  your 
petitioner  was  sentenced  to  a  double  sentence,  the  one 
to  corporall  punishment  (which  I  have  suffered),  the 
other  to  imprisonment  during  my  life  or  the  pleasure 
of  the  Court,  which  sentence  to  imprisonment  is  more 
intollerable  to  me  than  any  corporall  punishment  that 
may  be  inflicted  on  me."  She  implores  the  Court  to 
"take  into  their  gratious  consideration  the  condition  of 
herself,  an  aged  and  weak  woman,  and  of  her  aged  hus- 
band, he  being  eighty-eight  years  of  age  and  troubled 
often  with  swellings  and  sores  in  his  body  which  brings 
him  nigh  to  death  oftentimes."  She  begs  them  "not 
to  separate  my  husband  and  me  whom  God  hath  so 
joined  together,"  and  she  promises  so  to  behave  her- 
self both  in  word  and  deed  that  there  should  be  no 
cause  for  future  complaint.  The  Court  allowed  her, 
after  paying  what  is  due  on  arrears  to  the  keeper,  to 
"  be  released  the  prison  on  condition  that  she  depart 
within  one  month  after  her  release  out  of  this  juris- 
diction, and  not  to  returne  againe  on  poenalty  of  hir 
former  sentence  being  executed  against  hir."  She  did 
not  apparently  avail  herself  of  this  privilege,  for  in 
May,  1665.  in  answer  to  her  petition,  it  was  "ordered 
that  she  may  banc  hir  liberty  upon  hir  securitv  to  de- 
part from  and  abide  out  of  this  jurisdiction  according 


THE   PURITANS  83 

to  the  former  faiior  of  this  Court."  Thus  this  woman, 
"  whose  condition  required  that  refreshment  both  of 
diet  and  lodging  which  a  prison  does  not  afford,"  was 
doomed  still  longer  to  her  intolerable  confinement. 

It  is  affecting  to  look  over  some  half  a  hundred 
pages  of  documents  in  the  volume  referred  to,  all  re- 
lating to  the  Quakers.  The  letters,  petitions,  etc., 
were  often  blindly  written,  and  are  now  hardly  legible 
even  to  experts,  but  some  of  those  old  faded  papers, 
we  are  sure,  were  written  in  agony  and  moistened  with 
tears. 

It  may  be  a  difficult  question  to  decide  what  should 
have  been  done  to  the  Quakers,  but  perhaps  no  better 
answer  could  be  given  than  that  found  in  the  reply  of 
the  Rhode  Island  Court,  in  1657,  to  the  confederate 
commissioners  who  more  than  once  urged  the  Rhode 
Island  governor  to  take  some  effective  measures  to 
suppress  the  Quakers.     The  reply  thus  reads  : 

As  concerning  these  Quakers  (so  called)  which  are  now  among 
us,  wee  have  no  law  among  us  whereby  to  punish  any  for  only 
declaring  by  words,  etc.,  their  minds  and  understandings  con- 
cerning the  ways  and  things  of  God  as  to  salvation  and  an  eter- 
nal condition.  And  we  moreover  finde  that  in  those  places 
where  these  people  aforesaid,  in  this  colony,  are  most  of  all  suf- 
fered to  declare  themselves  freely,  and  are  only  opposed  by 
arguments  in  discourse,  there  they  least  of  all  desire  to  come, 
and  we  are  informed  that  they  begin  to  loath  this  place  for  that 
they  are  not  opposed  by  the  civill  authority,  but  with  all  pa- 
tience and  meekness  are  suffered  to  say  over  their  pretended 
revelations  and  admonitions,  nor  are  they  like  or  able  to  gain 
many  here  to  their  way  ;  and  surely  we  find  that  they  delight  to 
be  persecuted  by  civill  powers,  and  when  they  are  soe,  they  are 
like  to  gaine  more  adherents  by  the  conseyte  of  their  patient 
sufferings  than  by  consent  to  their  pernicious  sayings.      And  yet 


84       NEW  kngland's  strugglks 

\vc  conceive  that  their  doctrines  tend  to  very  absolute  cutting 
downe  and  overturnini:^  relations  and  civill  go\ernment  among 
men  if  generally  received.' 

With  these  sentiments  the  following  observations  of 
Backus  well  agree.     He  says  : 

The  hanging  of  four  Quakers  in  Boston  greatly  promoted  their 
sect  in  this  country  ;  and  the  light  and  liberty  which  has  been 
enjoyed  in  latter  years  has  been  far  from  increasing  their  num- 
ber. The  sect  which  John  Rogers  began  at  New  London,  in 
1677  [called  Rogerenes]  ,  owed  its  increase  to  the  severity  of  the 
Connecticut  government  against  them  ;  and  since  that  has 
ceased  their  society  has  nearly  dissolved.  And  although  the 
Sandemanians  [named  from  Sandeman,  born  in  Scotland,  died 
in  Conn.,  1771]  made  a  great  noise  in  New  England  from  1764 
to  1765,  yet,  having  no  oppression  to  complain  of,  they  have 
hardly  a  name  now  [1795]  left  among  us.  The  followers  of  Je- 
mima Wilkinson  [a  sort  of  Shakeress  and  deluded  enthusiast], 
who  made  their  appearance  October,  1776,  and  continued  some 
years  after,  are  now  all  gone  from  us. 

And  in  speaking  of  the  Episcopalians  at  a  certain 
period,  he  says  :  "  As  oppression  was  greater  in  Con- 
necticut than  in  other  governments  in  New  England, 
they  increased  the  most  there."  True  it  is,  as  Tertul- 
lian  said  long  ago,  semen  est  sanguis  Cliristianorum^ 
the  blood  of  the  martyrs  is  the  seed  of  the  church. 

It  scarcely  need  be  said  that  the  Quakers  of  that 
day  were  not  the  peaceable  and  well-behaved  people 

>  The  Indians  at  Martha's  Vineyard  managed  this  Quaker  business 
very  admirably.  Addressing  the  Quakers,  they  said:  "  You  tell  us  of 
a  light  within  us  that  will  guide  us  to  salvation  ;  but  our  experience  tells 
us  that  we  are  darkness  and  corruption,  and  all  manner  of  evil  within 
our  hearts.  We  cannot  receive  your  counsel  contrary  to  our  expe- 
rience. Therefoie,  we  pray  you  trouble  us  no  further  with  your  new 
doctrines." 


THE    PURITANS  85 

that  they  are  now.  With  some  reason  they  were  then 
regarded  as  persons  "distraught  in  their  wits,"  a  set  of 
half-crazy  fanatics  and  anarchists  whose  principles  and 
practices,  if  adopted,  would  be  most  "  damagef  ul  "  to 
Church  and  State.  What  but  the  veriest  fanaticism 
could  induce  modest  women,  like  Deborah  Wilson,  of 
Salem,  or  Mrs.  Lydia  Wardell,  of  Newbury  (in  sup- 
posed accordance  with  Isa.  20  :  2  ;  Micah  i  :  8),  to  walk 
stark  naked  through  the  streets  and  into  the  assemblies 
as  a  sign  of  the  spiritual  nakedness  of  the  ministers 
and  churches  ?  But  all  their  excesses  were  no  suffi- 
cient warrant  for  their  being  sentenced  to  the  most 
barbarous  forms  of  corporal  punishment,  such  as 
branding,  slitting  of  nostrils,  cropping  of  ears,  boring 
the  tongue  through  with  a  hot  iron  (which  last,  I  be- 
lieve, was  never  executed)  and  tying  persons,  even  del- 
icate women,  to  the  "carts  tayle,"  and  whipping  them 
"stripped  naked  from  the  middle  upwards,"  till  they 
get  out  of  town  and  out  of  the  jurisdiction — which 
scourging  distance  was  afterward  mercifully  limited  to 
the  extent  of  "through  three  towns," — these  and  simi- 
lar tortures  which  were  more  or  less  in  vogue  until 
1 66 1,  when  the  popular  feeling  would  no  longer  allow 
the  torturing  and  hanging  of  Quakers.  At  the  first 
execution  of  the  Quakers  the  government  ordered  "one 
hundred  souldjers,  compleately  armed  with  pike,  and 
musketteers,  with  ponder  and  bullett,  to  lead  them  to 
the  place  of  execution,  and  there  see  them  hang  till 
they  be  dead,"  and  that  "  thirty-sixe  of  the  souldiers 
remajne  in  and  about  the  toune  as  centinells  to  pre- 
serve the  peace  of  the  place  whiles  the  rest  goe  to  the 
execution." 

H 


.%  NKW  EXGLAND'S    STRT'OGI.KS 

In  connection  with  the  whipping  law  referred  t'o,  one 
may  feel  a  special  interest  in  reading  t-he  following 
order : 

To  the  constables  of  Dover,  Hampton,  Salisbury,  Newbury, 
Rowley,  Ipswich,  Wennam,  Linn,  Boston,  Roxbury,  Dedham 
[in  the  direction  of  Providence  Plantations  !]  and  until  these 
vagabond  Quakers  are  carried  out  of  this  jurisdiction, — You  and 
every  of  you  are  recjuired  in  the  king's  majesty's  name  to  take 
these  vagabond  Quakers,  Anne  Coleman,  Mary  Tomkins,  and 
AHce  Ambrose,  and  make  them  fast  to  the  cart's  tail,  and  driv- 
ing the  cart  through  your  several  towns,  to  whip  them  upon 
their  naked  backs,  not  exceeding  ten  stripes  apiece  on  each  of 
them,  in  each  town  ;  and  so  to  convey  them  from  constable  to 
constable  till  they  are  out  of  this  jurisdiction,  as  you  will  answer 
it  at  your  peril  ;  and  this  shall  be  your  warrant. 

Richard  Walden. 

Dover,  December  22,  1662. 

The  historian  Sewel,  states  that  "the  whip  used  for 
those  cruel  executions  [of  the  Quakers  generally]  was 
not  of  whipcord,  as  those  of  England,  but  of  dried  gut, 
and  every  string  with  three  knots  at  the  end,  which 
being  fastened  to  a  stick,  the  hangman  many  times  laid 
on  with  both  his  hands."  We  are  glad  to  be  told  by 
this  author,  that  the  three  women  mentioned,  after 
having  been  whipped  in  the  first  three  towns,  were  by 
some  means  or  other  then  discharged.  Yet  their  sub- 
sequent treatment  was  almost  as  bad  as  if  they  had 
received  all  the  iminfiicted  blows.  And  not  even  yet 
were  their  whippings  all  over.  About  one  year  af- 
terward, Anne  Coleman  was  whipped  through  Salem, 
Boston,  and  Dedham.  And  in  1664  the  other  women 
visited  Virginia,  "  where"  (under  Episcopal  rule)  "they 
had  not  only  been  pilloried,  but  whipped  also  each  of 


THE   PURITANS  87 

them  with  thirty-two  stripes,  with  a  whip  of  nine  cords, 
and  every  cord  with  three  knots  ;  and  they  were  han- 
dled so  severely  that  the  very  first  lash  drew  blood 
and  made  it  run  down  from  their  breasts."  '  But  just 
think  for  a  moment  of  the  enormity  of  the  above- 
threatened  punishment — ten  blows  for  each  individual 
in  each  of  eleven  different  towns,  on  the  naked  back,  at 
the  cart's  tail,  in  mid-winter ! 

When  the  persecution  of  the  Quakers  was  thus  rag- 
ing in  this  country,  and  the  indignation  of  the  people 
was  so  much  aroused  against  it,  then  it  was  that  "  Our 
dread  Soueraigne,"  King  Charles  the  Second,  by  an 
order  "given  at  our  Court  at  Whitehall,"  in  behalf  of 
the  Quakers,  mercifully  bade  the  Puritan  Court  "  to 
forbeare  they  re  corporall  punishment  or  death."  A 
few  weeks  prior  to  the  king's  signing  of  this  order 
(September  9,  1661),  the  Puritan  authorities,  well 
knowing  that  there  was  no  Quaker-hanging  law  in 
England,  and  suspecting,  doubtless,  his  majesty's  dis- 
pleasure at  their  bloody  doings,  released  twenty-eight 
Quakers  from  prison,  sending  most  of  them  directly 
out  of  the  jurisdiction,  but  retaining  two  of  them  for 
special  punishment,  to  be  stripped  from  their  girdle 
upward,  tied  to  a  cart's  tail,  and  whipped  twenty 
stripes  each  in  Boston,  and  ten  stripes  each  in  Rox- 
bury  and  in  Dedham.^  Several  of  these  released 
ones,  including   Elizabeth  Hooton,  had  been   banished 

1  Sewel's  "History,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  590. 

^  This  latter  town,  lying  near  the  borders  of  Plymouth  Colony  south- 
ward from  Boston,  and  in  the  direction  of  "Providence  Plantations," 
seems  often  to  have  served  as  a  last  stage  in  their  sorrowful  journey  for 
the  banished  Quakers  when  leaving  "ye  lymitts  "  of  the  Bay. 


88  NEW  en'CtLand's  struggles 

on  pain  of  death,  and  on  one  of  them,  Wenlock  Chris- 
tison,  the  sentence  of  death  had  been  ah-eady  pro- 
nounced. According  to  the  further  order  of  the  Court, 
if  any  of  the  Quakers  thus  freed  should  be  found 
within  the  Colony  twelve  hours  after  their  release, 
they  were  to  be  proceeded  with  according  to  law. 
A  fearful  prospect  indeed  for  the  future. 

In  the  year  previous  to  the  king's  interdict  the  Court 
sent  him  a  humble  defense  and  pathetic  appeal  for 
themselves  ;  but  it  failed  to  influence  the  royal  mind 
as  they  desired.'  It  was  answered  in  England  in  an 
address  to  the  king,  by  Edward  Burrough,  who,  after 
hearing  of  the  hanging  of  still  another  Quaker,  William 
Leddra,  in  Boston,  went  himself  personally  to  the  king 
and  secured  his  majesty's  favor  for  the  persecuted  Qua- 
kers of  New  England.  The  king's  missive  which,  as 
we  have  seen,  was  intrusted  to  a  banished  Quaker, 
reached  Boston  the  last  of  November,  1661,  and  on 
December  9,  the  following  notice  was  given  : 

To  William  Salter,  keeper  of  the  prison  at  Boston.  You  are 
required  by  authority  and  order  of  the  general  court  forthwith  to 
release  and  discharge  the  Quakers  who  at  present  are  in  your 
custody.      See  that  you  do  not  neglect  this. 

Edward  Rawson,  Secretary. 

The  king's  order  which  effected  this  happy  change 
reads  as  follows  : 

Charles  R. 

Trusty  and  well-beloved,  we  greet  you  well. — Having  been  in- 
formed that  several  of  our  subjects  amongst  you,  called  Quakers, 
have  been  and  are  imprisoned  by  you,  whereof  some  have  been 


*  This  petition  was  procured,  but  was  destroyed. 


THE   PURITANS  89 

executed,  and  others  (as  hath  been  represented  unto  us)  are  in 
danger  to  undergo  the  Hke  ;  we  have  thought  fit  to  signify  our 
pleasure  in  that  behalf  for  the  future  ;  and  do  hereby  require 
that  if  there  be  any  of  those  people  called  Quakers  amongst  you 
now  already  condemned  to  suffer  death,  or  other  corporal  pun- 
ishment, or  that  are  imprisoned  and  obnoxious  to  the  like  con- 
demnation, you  are  to  forbear  to  proceed  any  further  therein  ; 
but  that  you  forthwith  send  the  said  persons — whether  con- 
demned or  imprisoned — over  into  this  our  kingdom  of  England, 
together  with  the  respective  crimes  or  otiences  laid  to  their 
charge  ;  to  the  end  that  such  course  may  be  taken  with  them 
here  as  shall  be  agreeable  to  our  laws  and  their  demerits.  And 
for  so  doing  these  our  letters  shall  be  your  sufficient  warrant  and 
discharge. 

Notwithstanding  the  king's  mandate,  the  whippings 
(which  by  practice  had  now  become  in  this  Colony  as 
mere  play),  continued  long  after  this  in  great  abun- 
dance, and  the  death-banishment  was  also  occasionally 
resorted  to.  Even  the  king,  in  the  instructions  given 
to  his  commissioners,  says:  "We  cannot  be  under- 
stood hereby  to  direct  or  wish  that  any  indulgence 
should  be  granted  to  those  persons  commonly  called 
Quakers  whose  being  (is)  inconsistent  with  any  kind  of 
government.  Wee  have  found  it  necessary  by  the  ad- 
vice of  our  Parljament  here  to  make  sharpe  lawes 
against  them,  and  are  well  contented  that  you  doe  the 
like  there."  In  the  same  instructions  the  king  requires 
that  "such  as  desire  to  vse  the  Booke  of  Common 
Prayer  and  performe  their  devotions  in  that  manner  as 
is  established  here,  be  not  debarred  the  exercise  thereof, 
or  vndergoe  any  prejudice  or  disadvantage  thereby, 
they  vsing  their  liberty  without  disturbance  to  others, 
and  that  all  persons  of  good  and  honest  Hues  and  con- 
uersations  be  admitted  to  the  sacrement  of  the  Lord's 


go  NEW  England's  struggles 

supper  according  to  the  Booke  of  Common  Prajer,  and 
their  children  to  baptisme.  .  .  And  that  all  the  free- 
holders of  competent  estates,  not  vitious  in  conversacon 
and  orthodoxe  in  religion — though  of  different  persua- 
sions concerning  church  gouernment — may  haue  their 
votes  in  the  election  of  all  officers  both  ciuill  and  mili- 
tary." To  which  subsequently  the  royal  commission- 
ers added  this  counsel,  "  that  differences  in  opinion  doe 
not  lessen  their  charity  to  each  other,  since  charity  is  a 
fundamentall  in  religion  "  !  Pretty  good  this,  for  King 
Charles  II.  or  his  spokesmen. 

The  following  reply  of  the  Court  shows  that  the 
Puritans,  who  had  still  some  remembrance  of  the 
High  Commission  Court  and  of  Archbishop  Laud's 
rt^gimc,  did  not  take  kindly  to  the  Prayer  Book  recom- 
mendation :  "  Our  humble  addresses  to  his  majesty 
haue  fully  declared  our  majne  ends  in  being  voluntary 
exiles  from  our  deare  native  country,  which  wee  had 
not  chosen  at  so  deare  a  rate  could  we  haue  scene  the 
word  of  God  warranting  us  to  performe  our  devotions 
in  that  way,  and  to  haue  the  same  set  vp  here  ;  we 
conceive  it  is  apparent  that  it  will  disturbe  our  peace  in 
our  present  enjoyments."  The  Court  moreover  as- 
serted that  "  concerning  liberty  to  use  the  Common 
Prayer  book,  none  as  yet  among  us  appear  to  desire 
it."  We  may  infer  the  Puritanic  feeling  toward  the 
Prayer  Book  from  an  incident  related  by  Gov.  W'in- 
throp.  He  records,  as  "  a  thing  worthy  of  observa- 
tion," that  his  son  had  among  his  possessions  a  Greek 
Testament,  the  I'salms,  and  the  Common  Pra}'er. 
bound  together,  which  volume  was  kept  in  a  place 
"where  was  corn  of   divers  sorts."     The   last  named 


THE   PURITANS  9I 

book  came  to  a  humiliating  end,  for  the  son  "  found 
the  Common  Prayer  eaten  with  mice,  every  leaf  of  it, 
and  not  any  of  the  two  other  touched."  It  has,  how- 
ever, since  been  found  that  the  mice  stopped  their 
ravages  at  the  "  Order  for  the  Visitation  of  the  Sick  "  ! 
But  Puritan  prejudices  were  at  length  obliged  to  give 
way,  and  in  1680  the  Court  so  far  yields  on  the  Prayer 
Book  matter  as  to  say  : 

That  heeiin  wee  may  be  the  better  vnderstood,  and  stand 
more  cleare  in  his  majesties  opinion,  wee  humbly  declare  that  to 
be  of  a  different  perswasion  from  ourselves  in  matters  of  exter- 
nall  worship,  and  in  particular,  to  desire  to  serve  God  in  the  way 
of  the  Church  of  England,  is  no  part  of  that  hethrodoxie  in  re- 
ligion which  our  present  law  concerning  admission  of  freemen 
doth  prouide  against. 

But,  as  we  intimated,  these  royal  mandates  and 
counsels  for  leniency  were  not  at  once  heeded,  for  as 
late  as  1672,  when  the  laws  were  revised,  the  death 
banishment  of  the  Quakers  was  suffered  to  continue, 
while  the  law  relating  to  heresy  reads  as  follows  : 

If  any  Christian  within  this  jurisdiction  shall  go  about  to  de- 
stroy the  Christian  religion  by  broaching  and  maintaining  any 
damnable  heresies  :  as  denying  the  immortality  of  the  soul,  or 
resurrection  of  the  body,  or  any  sin  to  be  repented  of  in  the 
regenerate,  or  any  evil  done  by  the  outward  man  to  be  accounted 
sin  ;  or  denying  that  Christ  gave  himself  a  ransom  for  our  sins, 
or  shall  affirm  that  we  are  not  justified  by  his  death  and  right- 
eousness, but  by  the  perfection  of  our  own  works,  or  shall  deny 
the  morality  of  the  Fourth  Commandment,  or  shall  openly  con- 
demn or  oppose  the  baptizing  of  infants,  or  shall  purposely 
depart  the  congregation  at  the  administration  of  that  ordinance, 
or  shall  deny  the  ordinance  of  magistracy  or  their  lawful  au- 
thority to  make  war,  or  to  punish  the  outward  breaches  of  the 


92  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

first  table,  or  shall  endeavor  to  seduce  others  to  any  of  the  errors 
or  heresies  above  mentioned  ;  every  such  person  continuing  ob- 
stinate therein,  after  due  means  of  conviction,  shall  be  sentenced 
to  banishment. 

On  May  28  (June  7,  new  style),  1665,  seven  brethren 
and  two  sisters  founded  (in  Charlestown)  the  First 
Baptist  Church  of  Boston  (now  the  oldest  evangelical 
church  in  the  city),  and  though  the  authorities  could 
not  then  legally  torture  them,  they  could  and  did  fine, 
imprison,  disfranchise,  and  banish  them.  In  1655  ^ 
child  was  born  to  Thomas  Gould,  who  was  afterward 
their  pastor,  and  he  thereupon  was  censured  by  the 
Charlestown  church  for  withholding  the  child  from 
baptism.  Again,  in  April  7,  1657,  he  was  presented 
before  the  Court,  along  with  President  Dunster,  for  neg- 
lecting to  have  his  child  baptized.  Both  of  them  were 
admonished  and  put  under  bonds  for  future  trial.  In 
November,  1663,  Thomas  Osborn,  "being  leavened 
with  principles  of  anabaptisme,"  is  admonished  by  the 
church  of  Charlestown  for  neglecting  worship  with  the 
church.  And  Thomas  "  Gool  "  (Gould)  is  admonished 
again  for  neglecting  their  ordinances.  In  I^'ebruary, 
1664,  we  find  Thomas  Osborn  re-admonished  for  the 
same  cause  as  before,  and  a  similar  duty  performed  on 
Mr.  Gould  for  having  a  meeting  of  Anabaptists  at  his 
house  on  the  8th  of  the  preceding  November.  And  on 
October  11,  1665,  the  court  sentenced  "Thomas  Gold 
(Gould),  Thomas  Osburne,  Edward  Drinker,  William 
Turner,  and  John  George,  such  of  them  as  are  freemen 
to  be  disfranchised,  and  all  of  them,  upon  conviction 
before  any  one  magistrate  or  court  of  their  further  pro- 
ceeding herein  [in  holding  public  meetings],  to  be  com- 


THE   PURITANS  93 

mitted  to  prison  until  the  Generall  Court  shall  take 
further  order  with  them."  The  next  year,  April  17, 
Gould,  Osburne,  and  George  were  each  fined,  by  the 
County  Court,  four  pounds  for  absenting  themselves  one 
whole  year  from  the  established  public  worship  of  God 
on  the  Lord's  Day,  and  were  required  to  give  bonds  of 
twenty  pounds  apiece  for  their  appearance  at  the  next 
Court  of  Assistants,  and  refusing  to  do  so,  were  com- 
mitted to  prison.  On  the  following  September  they 
were  offered  release  by  paying  fines  and  costs,  but  in 
case  of  their  release  they  were  threatened  with  im- 
prisonment or  banishment  if  they  should  continue  their 
schismatical  meetings.  On  the  24th  of  October  war- 
rants were  put  into  the  hands  of  the  Charlestown  con- 
stables "  to  obtain  the  names  of  such  [Anabaptists]  as 
you  shall  find  met  together,"  etc.'  On  March  3,  1668, 
the  case  of  Thomas  Gould  comes  before  the  Court  of 
Assistants  on  an  appeal  from  the  County  Court,  but 
the  judgment  of  the  latter  is  confirmed,  though  the 
jury  are  disposed  to  favor  him,  and  he,  refusing  to  pay 
the  fine  imposed,  is  recommitted  to  prison.  At  length, 
in  May,  1668,  the  Court  sentenced  Thomas  Gold 
(Gould),  William  Turner,  and  John  Farnum,  "  obstinate 
and  turbulent  Anabaptists,"  who  "  some  time  since 
combined  themselves  with  others  in  a  pretended  church 
estate,  .  .  to  the  great  greife  and  offence  of  the  godly 
orthodox,  .  .  to  remooue  themselues  out  of  this  juris- 
diction, to  some  other  part  of  this  country  or  elsewhere, 
before  the  20th  of  July  next,"  or  else  to  "be  forthwith 
apprehended  and  committed  to  prison."  And  so,  as 
they    would    not    remove    themselves,  the    prison,  for 

1  See  State  Archives,  X.,  224. 


94  NKW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

something  over  a  year  longer,  was  their  home.  It  will 
be  remembered  that  Gould,  who  had  been  a  member  of 
the  Charlestown  church,  of  which  Thomas  Shepard, 
son  of  the  Cambridge  Shepard,  was  pastor,  and 
Zachariah  Symmes  was  teacher,  was  subjected  to  the 
censure  of  the  church  as  early  as  1655.  In  subse- 
quent years,  as  we  have  seen,  he  was  called  up  before 
the  Church  and  Court  from  time  to  time,  till  in  1665  he 
was  excommunicated.  He  must  have  been  a  worthy 
man  and  member,  otherwise  the  church  would  hardly 
have  borne  with  him  so  long.  Cotton  Mather  says  : 
"  There  were  in  this  unhappy  schism  several  truly  godly 
men."  And  the  Puritan  historian,  Hubbard,  reports 
that  "  Thomas  Gold  and  some  of  the  rest  were  said  to 
be  '  men  of  a  grave  and  serious  spirit,  and  of  sober 
conversation.'  "  Possibly  in  the  historian's  mind,  John 
Farnum  may  have  been  excepted  from  the  exemplary 
"some,"  for  before  the  Baptists  would  receive  him, 
he  had  to  make  confession  of  wrong-doing  to  the  old 
North  or  Mather  Church,  of  which  he  was  a  constituent 
member.  After  becoming  a  Baptist,  and  suffering  long 
and  much  for  his  new  faith,  he  finally  recanted,  and 
upon  confession  of  his  Baptist  "errors  and  iniquity," 
was  restored,  in  1683,  to  his  former  church.'  In  the 
Massachusetts  Archives,  X.,  p. 224,  is  a  petition  of  John 
P^arnum,  senior,  written  as  early  as  October,  1668, 
praying  for  release  from  prison,  and  engaging  "  to  attend 
the  hearing  of  the  word  preached  in  the  publike  as- 
semblys  each  Lord's  day,  sickness  or  the  like  not  hin- 
dering." 

We  may  here  state  that  in  April  14,  1668,  a  short 

*  See  Robbins'  "  History  of  the  Second  Church,  IJoston,"  p.  291. 


THE    PURITANS  95 

time  prior  to  the  sentence  of  banishment,  Gould,  Far- 
num,  and  Osburne  were  temporarily  released  from 
prison  in  order  to  hold  a  "full  and  free  debate"  with 
six  leading  ministers  of  the  Bay,  Messrs.  John  Allen, 
of  Dedham  ;  Samuel  Danforth,  of  Roxbury  ;  Thomas 
Cobbett,  of  Lynn  ;  John  Higginson,  of  Salem  ;  Jona- 
than Mitchell,  of  Cambridge ;  and  Thomas  Shepard,  of 
Charlestown  ;  which  conference  lasted  two  days,  and 
was  attended  by  three  brethren  from  Elder  Clarke's 
church  at  Newport,  William  Hiscox,  Joseph  Tory,  and 
Samuel  Hubbard.  But  the  ministers  found  and  left 
them  still  "obstinate,"  for  the  "erring  brethren,"  as  we 
are  told,  "  as  is  usual  in  such  cases,  made  this  their  last 
answer  to  the  arguments  which  had  cast  them  into 
much  confusion.  Say  wJiat  you  zvill,  ivc  ivill  hold  oitr 
mindy  '  In  the  month  following  they  were  summoned 
"  to  answer  for  n-ot  retracting  after  having  heard  the 
arguments  of  the  elders,"  and  a  censure  and  further 
orders  were  pronounced  against  them.^     It  would  seem. 


1  We  hope  there  is  a  little  more  truth  in  this  representation  than  there 
was  in  the  malicious,  scandalous  hoax  which  was  gotten  up  in  England 
about  this  time.  A  pamphlet  was  published  in  London,  in  1673,  en- 
titled, "  Mr.  Baxter  Baptized  in  Bloud  ;  or,  a  Sad  History  of  the  Unpar- 
alleled Cruelty  of  the  Anabaptists  of  New  England  ;  faithfully  relating 
the  cruel,  barbarous,  and  bloudy  murther  of  Mr.  Josiah  Baxter,  an 
Orthodox  minister,  who  was  killed  by  the  Anabaptists,  and  his  skin 
most  cruelly  Head  off  from  his  body.  Published  by  his  mournful  brother, 
Benjamin  Baxter,  living  in  Fenchurch  Street,  London."  The  author 
represents  his  brother  as  worsting  the  Anabaptists  in  a  public  disputation 
at  Boston,  for  which,  by  way  of  revenge,  they  sent  four  ruffians  in  visors 
to  his  house,  who,  after*  they  had  bound  his  wife  and  three  children, 
first  whipped  and  then  flead  (flayed)  him  alive.  There  was  a  demand 
in  a  few  weeks  for  a  second  edition  of  this  work,  which,  however,  on  its 
being  found  a  hoax,  was  suppressed  before  its  issue. 

^  See  State  Archives,  X.,  pp.  215-219. 


96         NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

however,  from  the  statements  of  these  brethren,  that 
the  discussion  was  mainly  on  one  side.  They  desired 
liberty  to  speak,  but  were  told  that  "  they  stood  there 
as  delinquents,  and  ought  not  to  have  liberty  to  speak." 
In  the  course  of  their  protracted  incarceration,  Gould 
petitioned,  in  behalf  of  himself  and  Turner,  to  be  re- 
leased from  prison  (the  original  of  which  jDCtition  is  in 
the  State  Archives,  X.,  220),  and  the  Council  in  March, 
1669,  allowed  them  "liberty  for  three  days,  to  visit 
their  families,  as  also  to  apply  themselves  to  any  that 
are  able  and  orthodox,  for  their  further  convincement  of 
their  many  irregularities,"  the  said  Gould  and  Turner 
to  be  returned  again  to  prison  at  the  end  of  the  said 
three  days.  Governor  Bellingham  was  not  disposed  to 
favor  them,  but  many  of  the  deputies  or  "lower  house" 
sympathized  with  them,  and  even  the  First  Church  (from 
which  the  church  now  called  the  "Old  South  "  or  Third 
Church,  had  seceded,  in  1669,  on  account  of  half-way 
covenant  preferences)  showed  evident  signs  of  relent- 
ing. "The  town  and  country,"  writes  Edward  Drinker, 
"  is  very  much  troubled  at  our  troubles  ;  and  especially 
the  Old  Church,  in  Boston,  and  their  elders,  both  Mr. 
Oxenbridge  and  Mr.  Allen  have  labored  abundantly,  I 
think,  as  if  it  had  been  for  their  best  friends  in  the 
world."  In  November,  1668,  the  Court  received  a 
petition  in  favor  of  the  prisoners  from  sixty-five  per- 
sons, many  of  whom  did  "  neither  approve  of  their 
judgment  or  practice."  A  part  of  their  petition  reads 
as  follows  : 

Whereas,  by  the  censure  of  this  honorable  Court,  Thomas 
Gould,  William  Turner,  and  John  Farnum  now  lie  in  prison  de- 
prived of  their  liberty,  taken  off  from  their  callings,  separated 


THE    PURITANS  97 

from  their  wives  and  children,  disabled  to  govern  or  to  provide 
for  their  families,  to  their  great  damage  and  hastening  ruin,  how 
innocent  soever  ;  beside  the  hazard  of  their  own  lives,  being 
aged  and  weakly  men,  and  needing  that  succor  a  prison  will  not 
afford  ;  the  sense  of  this,  their  personal  and  family  most  deplor- 
able and  afflicted  condition,  hath  sadly  affected  the  hearts  of 
many  sober  and  serious-minded  Christians,  and  such  as  neither 
approve  of  their  judgment  or  practice  ;  especially  considering 
that  the  men  are  reputed  godly  and  of  a  blameless  conversation  ; 
and  the  things  for  which  they  seem  to  suffer  seem  not  to  be  moral, 
unquestioned,  scandalous  evils,  but  matters  of  religion  and  con- 
science ;  not  in  things  fundamental,  plain,  clear,  but  circum- 
stantial, more  dark  and  doubtful,  wherein  the  saints  are  wont  to 
differ,  and  to  forbear  one  another  in  love,  that  they  be  not  ex- 
posed to  sin  or  to  suffer  for  conscience  sake.  We  therefore  most 
humbly  beseech  this  honored  Court,  in  their  Christian  mercy  and 
bowels  of  compassion,  to  pity  and  relieve  these  poor  prisoners, 
etc. 

See  further  in  Backus'  "  History,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  304, 
and  for  the  original,  which  is  written  in  beautiful  style, 
see  State  Archives,  X.,  221,  where  the  petitioners' 
names  are  given.  Many  of  the  signers  of  the  petition 
were  called  to  account  and  fined  for  this  action,  while 
several  made  acknowledgment  of  their  error  in  thus 
signing.  For  their  retraction,  see  p.  223  of  the  above- 
mentioned  volume. 

The  imprisoned  ones  also  found  sympathizing  breth- 
ren in  distant  England.  Dr.  John  Owen  (whom  the 
Boston  Church  called  more  than  once  to  be  their  min- 
ister— the  Court  uniting  in  the  call)  with  twelve  other 
distinguished  Independent  ministers  addressed  the 
governor,  urging  him  "  to  put  an  end  unto  the  suffer- 
ings and  confinements  of  the  persons  censured,"  stat- 
ing that  the  procedure  "greatly  reflects  on  us,"  since 


98  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

"  it  hath  been  xogued  that  jiersons  of  our  way,  prhici- 
ples.  and  spirit,  cannot  bear  with  dissenters  from 
them."  In  the  same  year,  1669,  Robert  Mascall,  an- 
other EngHsh  Congregationalist,  writes  thus  to  a  friend 
here : 

A  sad  tliiiii;  that  much  affects  us  is  to  hear  that  you,  even  in 
New  England,  persecute  your  brethren,  men  sound  in  the  faith, 
of  holy  life,  and  agreeing  in  worship  and  discipline  with  you,  only 
differing  in  the  point  of  baptism.  Dear  brethren,  we  here  do 
love  and  honor  them,  hold  familiaritv  with  them,  and  take  sweet 
counsel  together.  They  lie  in  the  bosom  of  Christ,  and  there- 
fore they  ought  to  be  laid  in  our  bosoms. 

Many  years  after  this,  in  1719-20,  Dr.  Watts,  in  a 
letter  to  Cotton  Mather,  speaks  of  the  persecuting 
principles  and  practices  of  the  first  planters  in  this 
country  as  forming  a  "history  which  now  makes  us 
blush  and  ashamed."  Often  were  the  Puritans  of  this 
Colony  taunted  by  the  Episcopalians,  that  the}-  were 
greater  persecutors  than  themselves  were  ever  charged 
with  being.  Dr.  Stillingfleet,  in  his  "Mischief  of  Sep- 
aration," justified  their  rigorous  course  against  the  Con- 
gregationalists  in  England  by  the  procedure  of  rulers 
here  against  dissenters  from  themselves.  And  the 
king's  fom-  commissioners  who,  much  to  the  dislike  and 
disgust  of  our  magistrates,  were  ssnt  over  to  this 
country  to  overlook  the  affairs  of  the  Colonies,  thus 
addressed  the  General  Court :  "  We  admire  [wonder] 
that  you  (whose  coming  hither  was  for  the  enjoyment 
of  the  liberty  of  your  consciences)  should  deny  the 
liberty  of  conscience  to  any,  especially  where  the  king 
requires  it."  ' 


'  See  some  account  of  these  comniissioncrs  in  Appendix  D. 


THE   PURITANS  99 

From  what  has  been  said  it  will  be  rightly  inferred 
that  the  Puritan  fathers  were  far  more  blamed  by  their 
English  brethren  and  by  the  English  authorities  for 
their  excessive  severity,  than  for  laxness  in  suppressing 
heresies  and  errors  ;  and  yet  it  was  in  part  for  the 
"  clearinge  "  of  themselves  in  the  "observant  eyes"  of 
different  parties  in  the  mother  country,  that  they  took 
so  much  notice  of  erroneous  opinions  and  practices. 
Indeed,  many  justify  the  strictness  of  the  Puritans  on 
the  ground  that  every  heresy,  misdeed,  or  failure  of 
theirs  would  be  eagerly  watched  for  and  rejoiced  in  by 
the  home  church  and  government,  and  might  finally 
result  in  the  loss  of  their  charter  or  in  having  a  gen- 
eral governor  sent  over  to  them. 

At  what  time  the  different  persons  above  mentioned 
were  freed  from  imprisonment  we  cannot  tell.  We 
know  that  Edward  Drinker  was  released  on  May  19, 
1669,  from  prison,  whither  he  had  been  put  for  wor- 
shiping, on  the  previous  March  7th,  with  the  Baptists 
at  the  house  of  Thomas  Gould.  He  is  dismissed  with 
the  caution  that  if  he  repeat  the  offense  he  shall  be 
confined  for  trial.  Elder  Gould,  who,  for  not  remov- 
ing himself,  was  imprisoned  in  July,  1668,  was  proba- 
bly not  released  till  the  last  part  of  1669,  or  beginning 
of  1670.  Perhaps  others  were  set  at  liberty  about 
this  time  on  the  supposition  or  hope  that  they  might 
"remove  themselves."  Whereupon  they  betook  them- 
selves no  farther  away  than  to  Noddle's  Island.  In- 
deed, this  island  seems  to  have  been  an  early  home  for 
the  Boston  Baptists.  W.  H.  Sumner,  in  his  "  History 
of  East  Boston,"  says  :  "  P^or  the  first  ten  years  this 
church  appears  to  have  held  its  meetings  mostly  at 


lOO         NEW  ENGLAND  S  STRUGGLES 

Noddle's  Island."  Henry  Shrinipton,  though  a  mem- 
ber of  the  Boston  church,  yet  has  in  his  will,  dated 
July  17,  1666  (about  a  year  after  the  Baptist  church 
was  formed),  this  item  :  "I  give  to  the  Society  of  Chris- 
tians that  doth  now  Meet  at  Noddle's  Island,  of  which 
is  Gold  and  Osborn  and  the  rest,  ^10,  as  a  token  of 
my  affection."  This  v/e  deem  a  very  complimentary 
act  both  for  the  giver  and  the  receivers.  We  may  add 
that  Mr.  Shrimpton's  son,  Samuel,  who  in  1670  became 
owner  of  the  island,  was  one  of  the  sixty-five  persons 
who  joined  in  a  petition  for  the  release  of  the  impris- 
oned Baptists.  On  November  30,  1670,  Drinker  thus 
writes  :  "  We  keep  our  meeting  at  Noddle's  Island 
every  first  day,  and  the  Lord  is  adding  some  souls  to 
us  still,  and  is  enlightening  some  others  ;  the  priests 
are  much  enraged.  The  Lord  has  given  us  another 
elder,  one  John  Russell,  senior,  a  gracious,  wise,  and 
holy  man  that  lives  at  Woburn,  where  we  have  five 
brethren  near  that  can  meet  with  him  .  .  .  when  they 
cannot  come  here."  In  something  over  a  year  from 
this  time  Russell  himself  was  confined  in  prison  walls, 
but  perhaps  was  shortly  freed  on  account  of  ill  health. 
A  letter  written  in  the  summer  of  1672,  says  :  •'  I  per- 
ceive you  have  heard  as  if  our  brother  Russell  had  died 
in  prison.  Through  grace  he  is  yet  in  the  land  of  the 
living,  and  out  of  prison  bonds  ;  but  is  in  a  doubtful 
way  as  to  recovery  of  his  outward  health."  His  peti- 
tion for  permanent  release  from  prison,  which  is  found 
in  Vol.  X,  227,  of  the  Archives,  thus  reads  : 

To  the  honoured  generall  Coart  now  assembled,  vour  humble 
petitionour  :  Whareas  I  being  comited  to  prison  at  cambrig  by 
the  honoured  Coart  of  Assistance  held  at  boston  the  5,  i  mth., 


THE   PURITANS  lOI 

1672,  there  to  remain  untill  the  generall  coart  should  take  fur- 
thur  order,  in  which  time  of  my  Imprisonment  it  pleased  God 
to  exercise  me  with  great  Siknes  and  lamnes,  upon  which  I  was 
released  under  bail,  for  the  recovery  of  my  health  ;  the  which 
God  of  his  marcy  hath  in  some  measure  restoared,  though  not 
yet  freed  from  the  remainders  of  that  jlnes  sustained  by  my  Im- 
prisonment, and  questionable  whether  ever  I  shall,  my  hum- 
ble request  js  that  your  honours  would  be  pleased  to  take  my 
case  Into  your  serious  consideration,  and  to  put  an  jsue  too  it, 
but  in  case  it  be  not  your  pleasure  to  fre  me  from  that  sentance 
my  request  is  that  your  honours  would  be  pleased  to  free  those 
men  that  ware  bound  for  me  of  there  bond  ;  And  I  shall  remain 
at  your  pleasure 

your  prisonour, 

John  Russell. 

Edward  Drinker,  already  mentioned  as  suffering  be- 
cause of  his  association  with  Gould,  in  his  letter  of 
Nov.  30,  1670,  also  writes  that  Turner  "has  been  about 
a  month  in  prison,"  ^  and  that  "warrants  are  in  two 
marshals'  hands  for  brother  Gould  also,  but  he  is  not 
yet  taken  because  he  lives  on  Noddle's  Island,  and  they 
only  wait  to  take  him  at  town."  Gould's  warrant  as 
given  in  Vol.  X.,  227,  of  the  Archives  reads  as  follows  : 

To  the  marshall  (nuld  or  his  Deputy  or  marshall  of  Suffolk  : 

In  his  majesty's  name  you  are  required  to  apprehend  the  body 

of  Thomas  Gold  and  Comitt  him  to  prison  in  Boston,  there  to 

1  Turner  has  a  manuscript  petition  (dated  October  27,  1670)  in  the 
State  Archives,  in  which  he  prays  to  be  released  from  prison,  and  states 
that  he  has  already  "suffered  above  thirty  ?Ff^/Jc'j- imprisonment"  [at 
different  times?],  and  he  fears  that  the  weakness  of  his  body  and  the 
extremity  of  living  in  prison  in  a  cold  winter  will  prove  the  ruin  of  his 
health  and  of  his  headless  family.  In  closing  he  expresses  his  readiness, 
if  released,  to  serve  his  country  to  the  utmost  of  his  ability.  This  pur- 
pose he  afterward  nobly  fulfilled,  even  to  the  laying  down  of  his  life. 


I02  NEW  England's  struggles 

remajne  according  to  the  sentence  of  the  Generall  Court  April 
29,  1668,  and  in  so  doing  this  shall  be  your  warrant,  dated  25, 
8,  1670. 

Signed  by 

SVMON    BrADSTREET, 

Dam  ELL  GooKiN, 
and  three  other  magistrates. 
Edw.  Rawson,  Secty. 

Why  the  authorities  neglected  to  cross  the  channel 
to  take  Elder  Gotild  is  something  of  a  mystery.  The 
Coin't's  authority  certainly  extended  over  the  island, 
and  it  was  exercised  at  times  and  in  a  notable  manner, 
as  in  the  case  of  Samuel  Maverick.  He  was  a  stren- 
uous Episcopalian,  and  was,  moreover,  very  hospitable, 
"giving  entertainments  to  all  comers  gratis."  The 
Court,  fearing  there  might  be  among  his  guests  too 
many  persons  of  heretical  tendency,  put  a  stop  to  his 
generosity,  forbidding  him  to  entertain  strangers  longer 
than  one  night,  without  leave  from  some  assistant,  on 
penalty  of  one  hundred  pounds.  I  think  the  author- 
ities had  been  so  long  and  often  troubled  with  Elder 
Gould,  who  had  been  called  up  before  the  Church  or 
the  Court  at  least  a  dozen  different  times,  that  they 
were  half  willing  for  a  time  to  lea\-e  him  alone,  pro- 
vided he  would  keep  away  from  them  even  at  a  little 
distance.  Mr.  Drinker  further  adds  in  his  letter  that 
"■  Brother  Turner's  family  is  ver\'  weakly  and  himself 
too.  I  fear  he  will  not  trouble  them  long;  only  this 
is  our  comfort,  we  hear  if  he  dies  in  prison  they  say 
they  will  bury  him.''  Another  writer  in  the  last  part 
of  167 1,  says:  "  Hiother  Turner  has  been  near  to 
death,  but  through  mercy  is  revived,  and  so  has  our 
pastor  Gould."      Messrs.  Gould  and  Turner  we  find  at 


THE    PURITANS  IO3 

Noddle's  Island,  Sept.  i,  1672,  at  which  time  they  date 
a  joint  letter  to  Samuel  Hubbard,  a  Seventh  Day  Bap- 
tist, at  Newport.  And  on  Jan.  9,  1674,  another  letter 
states  that  "  Brother  Drinker  hath  been  very  sick,  near 
unto  death,  but  the  Lord  hath  restored  him  to  health 
again.  The  church  of  the  baptized  do  peaceably  en- 
joy their  liberty.  Brother  Russell,  the  elder  and  the 
younger,  have  good  remembrance  of  you."  This  "gra- 
cious, wise,  and  holy  man,"  Elder  Russell,  lived  till 
near  the  close  of  1680,  the  beloved  pastor  of  the  Bos- 
ton church, — though  living  with  them  only  about  a  year 
at  the  close  of  his  life, — and  a  workman  of  whom  none 
need  be  ashamed. 

The  Baptists  of  that  day  were  often  accused,  as  by 
Increase  and  Cotton  Mather,  of  the  sin  of  Jeroboam, 
who  "  made  priests  of  the  lowest  of  the  people,"  and 
Samuel  Willard,  in  his  "Ne  Sutor,"  etc.,  plainly  said: 
"  Truly,  if  Goodman  Russell  was  a  fit  man  for  a  min- 
ister, we  have  but  fooled  ourselves  in  building  colledges, 
and  instructing  children  in  learning."  Elder  Russell 
had  then  gone  where  he  could  not  hear  these  words, 
but  in  his  "  Brief  Narrative  of  Some  Considerable 
Passages  concerning  the  First  Gathering  and  Further 
Progress  of  a  Church  of  Christ,  in  Gospel  Order  in 
Boston  in  New  England,  commonly  (though  falsely) 
called  by  the  name  of  Anabaptists,"  he  replies  to  the 
like  taunt  from  Dr.  Increase  Mather,  in  these  words  : 

It  is  not  because  we  are  against  learning,  for  we  esteem  it  and 
honor  it  in  its  place  ;  and  if  we  had  such  among  us  who  were, 
together  with  that,  otherways  duly  quahfied  for  the  work  of  the 
ministry,  we  should  readily  choose  them.  But  we  do  not  think 
the  Spirit  of  God  is  locked  up  so  in  the  narrow  limits  of  college 


I04  NEW  ENGLAND'S    STRUGGLES 

learning  that  none  are  to  be  called  to  office  in  a  church  but 
such,  nor  that  all  such  are  fit  for  that  work,  be  they  never  so 
great  scholars  ;  neitlier  clo  we  think  that  all  those  who  have  not 
that  learning  are  to   l)e  accounted  "  the  lowest  of  the  people." 

We  give  a  few  sentences  further  from  the  "  Falla- 
cious Narrative"  or  "  Satytical  Invective"  of  this 
"  wedderdop'd  shoemaker,"  in  evidence  of  his  large 
and  liberal  views.  "  Far  be  it  from  us  to  judge  all 
that  are  not  baptized  not  to  be  visible  saints,  for  we 
judge  that  the  Lord  hath  many  precious  people  in  the 
world  that  are  not  baptized  according  to,  or  in  the 
manner,  we  baptize.  .  .  And  as  for  not  owning  their 
churches,  .  .  we  never  denied  them  to  be  churches 
of  Christ.  It  is  enough  for  every  one  to  prove  his 
own  work  ;  but  we  have  owned  them  as  such,  for  where 
there  is  true  matter  joined  together  in  the  bond  of  a 
holy  covenant,  they  may  be  looked  at  as  a  true  church, 
though  not  in  due  order."  Yet  the  historian  Hubbard 
says  :  "He  did  stitch  up  a  small  pamphlet,"  in  which 
"he  made  such  botching  work,"  etc. 

Prof.  A.  H.  Newman  mentions  in  his  "  History,"  p. 
112,  an  interesting  circumstance,  if  true,  that  John 
Cook  (or  Cooke),  who  came  over  "as  a  boy  among  the 
passengers  of  the  Mayflower,  and  who  had  been  a  Con- 
gregational minister  in  the  Plymouth  Colony  .  .  .  was 
converted  to  Baptist  views  before  1680,  by  reading  the 
'  Narrative  of  Flder  Russell.'  "  This  "  Narrative,"  how- 
ever, was  not  published  until  1680,  and  hence  the  alleged 
reading  must  have  been  subsequent  to  this  date.  Ac- 
cording to  Thatcher's  "  History  of  Plymouth,"  John 
Cook  was  chosen  deacon  of  the  Pilgrim  church  about 
1630,  and  "was  subsequently  excommunicated  for  occa- 


THE   PURITANS  IO5 

sioning  many  dissensions."  Mr.  Felt  says  that  "John 
Cook,  who  appears  to  have  been  an  Anabaptist,  caused 
great  divisions  in  the  Barnstable  church,"  about  1654. 
And  Backus  states  that  he  "  was  a  Baptist  minister  at 
Dartmouth  many  years."  And  yet  we  learn  from  the 
Plymouth  laws  that  in  1659,  (another.?)  John  Cooke,  of 
Plymouth,  with  Isaac  Robinson,  and  two  others,  was 
permitted  to  attend  for  a  time  the  meetings  of  the 
Quakers,  "  to  endeavor  to  reduce  them  from  the  error 
of  theire  vvayes."  According  to  Prof.  Newman,  Mr. 
Cooke  was  "  among  the  more  noted  members  of  the 
church  [in  Newport]  during  the  latter  part  of  the  cen- 
tury, .  .  and  was  still  living  in  1694."  It  has  also  been 
stated  that  he  died  at  Dartmouth.  I  am  not  able  to 
reconcile  all  these  differing  statements. 

Mr.  Turner's  subsequent  history  deserves  at  least 
brief  mention,  inasmuch  as  he  became  eminently  use- 
ful in  the  service  of  his  country.  Though  at  first  de- 
nied a  commission  because  he  was  an  Anabaptist,  yet 
he  afterward  served  as  commander  in  King  Philip's 
war — his  fellow-sufferer,  Edward  Drinker,  also  serving 
as  lieutenant — and  was  finally  slain  by  the  Indians. 
Under  his  command,  "  as  an  instrument  in  the  hand  of 
the  Lord,'  was  the  greatest  blow  struck  to  the  Indians 
of  any  they  had  received  ;  for  after  this  they  were 
broken  and  scattered  so  that  they  were  overcome  and 
subdued  with  ease."  Under  the  date  of  May  19,  1676, 
Mr.  Felt  has  this  record  :  "  In  the  fall  fight  on  Con- 
necticut River,  wherein  the  enemy  lost  three  hundred 
men,  women,  and  children,  and  which  was  among  the 
causes  of  their  overthrow,  Captain  William  Turner, 
with  thirty-eight  of  his  men,  were  slain.      He  was  too 


106  NEW  ENCxLAND'S   STRrOGLES 

unwell  to  cnga<j;e  in  battle,  but  he  felt  constrained  to 
lead  his  soldiers  by  the  great  prospect  of  success." 
Well  did  he  earn  the  title  of  the  "  brave  and  resolute 
Captain  Turner."  "Turner's  Falls,"  in  the  river  be- 
tween Gill  and  Montague,  commemorates  his  name  and 
valor. 

Though  we  left  the  baptized  church  in  Noddle's 
Island  flourishing  under  Pastor  Gould's  care  since  1669, 
and  peaceably  enjoying  their  liberty  under  the  tolerant 
reign  of  Governor  Leverett,  yet  they  have  not  wholly 
done  with  the  "coercive  power  of  a  godly  magistracy." 
"  It  is  hoped,"  said  Thomas  Shepard,  of  Charlestown, 
in  an  election  sermon,  1672,  "that  this  coercive  power 
of  a  godly  magistracy,  which  we  have  experienced  the 
benefit  of  so  many  ways,  being  duly  managed,  shall 
not  be  abandoned,  nor  therefore  a  repealing  of  any 
wholesome  law  about  religion  for  the  defense  and  main- 
taining the  gospel  among  us,  or  that  liberty  shall  be 
proclaimed  to  men  of  any  religion  to  come  and  set  up 
shop  or  schools  of  seduction  among  us.  To  tolerate 
all  things  and  to  tolerate  nothing  (it's  an  old  and  true 
maxim),  both  are  intolerable."  It  seems  a  great  pity 
that  the  Puritan  fathers  could  not  have  found  a  )>icdia 
via  between  unbounded  toleration  and  what  Roger 
Williams  speaks  of  as  "  a  consuming  overzealous  fire 
of  the  (so-called)  godly  Christian  magistrates."  Jeremy 
Taylor's  caution  would  in  those  days  have  been  exceed- 
ingly timely:  "  Only  let  not  men  be  hasty  in  calling 
every  di.sliked  opinion  by  the  name  of  heresy ;  and 
when  they  have  resolved  that  they  will  call  it  so,  let 
them  use  the  erring  person  like  a  brother  ;  not  beat 
him   like  a  dog,  or  convince  him   with  a  gibbet,  or  vex 


THE    PURITANS  IO7 

him  out  of  his  understanding  and  persuasion."  The 
Cambridge  platform  of  1648  provides  that,  "  If  any 
church,  one  or  more,  shall  grow  schismatical,  rending 
itself  from  the  communion  of  other  churches,  or  shall 
walk  incorrigibly  or  obstinately  in  any  corrupt  way  of 
their  own,  contrary  to  the  rule  of  the  word  ;  in  such 
case  the  magistrate  is  to  put  forth  his  coercive  power, 
as  the  matter  shall  require."  And  this  power  was 
again  to  be  put  forth  against  the  church  of  the  Baptists. 
In  1674  (the  year  of  Elder  Gould's  death,  according  to 
Mr.  Felt,  who  makes  reference  to  the  Suffolk  Probate 
Records,  or  the  year  before  his  death,  according  to 
Backus,  who  puts  it  at  October  27,  1675)  the  members 
of  the  little  church  ventured  to  recross  the  channel  and 
resume  worship  in  town.  The  diary  of  Captain  John 
Hull,  father-in-law  of  Judge  Samuel  Sewall,  has  this 
record:  "This  summer  [1674]  the  Anabaptists  that 
were  wont  to  meet  at  Noddle's  Island,  met  at  Boston, 
on  the  Lord's  day.  One  Mr.  Symon  Lind  [or  Lynde], 
letteth  one  of  them  a  house."  ^  The  next  year,  on 
June  1 5,  the  Middlesex  Court  fined  Thomas  Foster, 
John  Russell,  senior,  John  Russell,  junior,  Benanuel 
Bowers,"  Thomas  Osburne,  and  John  Johnson,  from  one 


^  This  Mr.  Lynde,  and  Mr.  Samuel  Shrimpton,  who,  as  we  have  seen, 
also  befriended  the  oppressed  Baptists,  were  afterward  appointed  coun- 
sellors of  New  England  by  royal  authority. 

-  A  petition  of  Elizabeth  Bowers,  written  May  28,  1674,  is  preserved 
in  Vol.  X.,  p.  232,  of  the  Archives.  She  complains  that  her  husband 
has  now  been  "kept  prisoner  neare  upon  three  months,"  and  that  in  con- 
sequence of  taking  him  from  his  family  and  his  business,  "much  pains 
and  cares  lies  uppon  me,  having  small  children  about  me  and  sucking  the 
brests,  and  my  body  weak.  I  desire  you  to  consider  of  my  condition,  and 
how  hard  a  thing  it  would  be  to  any  of  your  wives  if  they  were  in  my 
condition."     Her  closing  words  are  ;  "  I  remaine  a  sufferer."     She  her- 


I08  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

to  five  pounds  each  and  costs  for  neglect  of  allowed 
public  worship  on  Fast,  Thanksgiving,  and  Sabbath 
days.  And  agam,  on  December  19,  John  Russell,  John 
Wilson,  senior,  and  Caleb  Farlow,  are  fined  as  Baptists 
for  the  same  offense,  while  several  persons  are  ad- 
monished and  ordered  to  pay  costs  for  a  similar  charge. 
On  May  30,  1677,  the  council  warned  Elder  John  Myles, 
of  Swansea,  not  to  preach  any  more  to  the  Baptists  in 
Boston.  Swansea,  as  also  Rehoboth,  was  thoroughly 
desolated  during  King  Philip's  war,  and  it  was  about 
this  time  that  Elder  Myles  retired  to  Boston,  while 
most  of  the  inhabitants  fled  to  Rhode  Island.  In  \"ol. 
X.,  p.  233,  of  the  State  Archives,  the  action  of  the 
Council  is  thus  recorded  : 

Mr.  Miles  being  called  before  ye  Councill  to  give  an  acc't  of 
his  preaching  to  the  assembly  of  Annabaptists,  whereof  Gold 
and  Farnuni,  and  sundry  others  excommunicate  persons  were  of 
the  number,  the  said  Miles  confessed  yt  he  being  driven  from 
his  own  ])lace  and  people  at  Swanzy  by  the  rage  of  ye  Indians, 
and  coming  to  Boston  had  accepted  the  call  of  sd  society  to 
preach  among  ym,  but  declared  the  purpose  to  return  to  his 
owne  place  as  soon  as  he  could  be  provided  of  a  habitation  ;  the 
Council!  haveing  given  him  free  liberty  fully  to  express  himself, 
read  unto  him  some  of  the  laws  of  this  colony,  .  .  and  desired 
him  to  tiike  notice  yt  they  did  now  declare  their  own  dissatisfac- 
tion with  him,  he  being  by  his  own  confession  convicted  of  being 
an  offender  against  the  said  laws. 

self  was  afterward  imprisoned  and  whipped  ;  while  he,  for  defaming  a 
government  official,  was  beaten  twenty  stripes.  And  for  the  like  ofil'ense, 
both  of  them  at  a  later  date,  were  sentenced  to  a  fine  of  five  pounds 
each,  or  be  whipped  openly  fifteen  stripes  apiece.  Even  their  daughter, 
Elizabeth,  could  not  escape  without  a  flagellation.  This  unfortunate 
family,  though  associated  with  the  linptists,  seem  to  liave  sympathized 
at  first  somewhat  with  the  ( >uakers. 


THE   PURITANS  109 

In  1678  "'Mr.  John  Allen  and  John  Brown  [of 
Swanzey]  were  chosen  to  draw  up  a  letter  in  behalf  of 
the  church  and  town,  to  be  sent  to  Mr.  John  Myles, 
pastor  of  the  church  and  minister  of  the  town,  mani- 
festing our  desires  of  his  return  to  us  "  It  was  voted 
to  pay  him  sixty  pounds  yearly,  "and  whereas  Mr.  John 
Myles  desires  to  be  accommodated  with  a  servant, 
horses  and  cart,  and  other  conveniences  for  his  com- 
fortable subsistence,  the  town  doth  promise  to  give  to 
the  said  Myles  the  sura  of  four  pounds  in  money,"  etc.' 
Mr.  Baylies  speaks  of  him  as  "  a  man  of  learning  and 
of  elevated  views."  His  son,  John  Myles,  the  first 
town-clerk  of  Swanzey,  went  back  to  England,  and 
another  son,  Samuel  Myles,  became,  in  1689,  the 
second  rector  of  the  Episcopal  (afterward,  in  1787, 
Unitarian)  "King's  Chapel,"  in  Boston.  It  is  some- 
what singular  that  the  "town"  should  take  action,  as 
above,  in  regard  to  Mr.  Myles,  and  also  in  regard  to  his 
successor,  Elder  Samuel  Luther.  There  was  evidently 
here,  eve^i  on  Baptist  ground,  some  commingling  of 
Church  and  State.  Mr.  Myles  at  this  time  would  ap- 
pear to  have  been  quite  tolerant  toward  Pedobaptist 
practices.^  This  is  "  a  result  of  his  training  in  connec- 
tion with  the  State-Church  system  of  the  Commonwealth 
and  the  Protectorate"  in  I^ngland.' 

In  May,  1679,  the  Court  forbade  the  erection  of 
meeting-houses  without  permit,  and  also  prohibited 
their  occupancy,  without  leave,  when  built.  Fortu- 
nately just   before   this  prohibitory   building  law  was 

1  See  Baylies'  "  History  of  New  Plymouth,"  II.,  94. 
*  See  Backus'  "History,"  I.,  286. 

3  Prof.  Newman's  "History  of  the  Baptist  Churches,"  p.  170. 
K 


no  NKw  exoland's  struggles 

passed,  the  Boston  Baptists  had  with  <^veat  caution  built 
for  themselves  a  house  of  worship  on  what  is  now 
called  Stillman  Street,  and  near  the  then  mill  pond, 
which  served  as  a  baptistery.  After  occupying  their 
house  for  a  time,  a  warrant  was  issued  "  in  his  Maj- 
esty's name,  forthwith  to  summon  Philip  Squire, 
Thomas  Skmner,  and  Mr.  Drinker,  to  make  their  ap- 
pearance [March  5,  1680]  before  the  Court  of  Assist- 
ants now  sittmg,  having  liberty  to  bring  with  them 
three  or  four  more  of  their  friends,  to  give  an  account 
of  their  breach  of  law  in  erecting  a  meeting-house." 
The  third  day  after  this,  Messrs.  Hull,  Russell, 
Drinker,  and  Skinner,  in  their  response  to  the  Court 
whether  they  would  desist  from  meeting  in  their  house 
of  worship,  said  that  they  had  no  thought  of  affronting 
authority  in  building  the  house  as  there  was  then  no 
law  against  it,  and  that  after  such  a  law  was  made  they 
desisted  from  worshiping  therein  for  a  while,  until 
they  understood  it  was  his  iVIajesty's  pleasure  that  they 
should  enjoy  the  liberty  of  their  meeting.  At  the  close 
of  their  address  they  make  humble  request  that  they 
may  find  acceptance  with  the  Court,  and  so  be  permitted 
to  "enjoy  the  liberty  of  God's  worship  in  such  places  as 
God  hath  afforded  us."  The  Court's  response  to  this 
was  that  on  March  8,  1680,  their  meeting-house  was 
ordered  to  be  closed,  and  the  following  notice  was 
nailed  on  the  door  : 

All  persons  are  to  take  notice  that  by  order  of  the  Court  the 
doors  of  this  house  are  shut  up,  and  that  they  are  inhibited  to 
hold  any  meetinfj  therein,  or  to  open  the  doors  thereof  without 
license  from  authority  till  the  Court  take  further  order,  as  tliey 
will  answer  the  contrary  at  their  peril. 


THE    PURITANS  III 

In  Punchard's  "  History  of  Congregationalism  "  the 
following  is  given  as  the  original  form  : 

All  p'sons  are  to  take  notice  yt  by  orde  of  ye  Court  ye  doors 
of  this  house  are  Shutt  vp,  &  yt  they  are  Inhibitted  to  hold  any 
meeting  therein  or  to  open  ye  doors  thereof,  without  Hshence 
from  Authority  till  ye  gennerall  Court  take  further  order,  as  they 
will  answer  ye  Company  [?]  att  theire  P'ill,  dated  in  boston  8th 
March  1680. 

by  orde  of  ye  Councell 

Edward  Ranson  [Rawson]  Secretary. 

A  manuscript  account  found  among  the  Backus 
papers  (probably  taken  from  the  Church  Records)  gives 
the  following  item  of  the  church's  experience  at  this 
time  : 

After  they  nailed  up  our  doors  we  were  exposed  to  meet 
abroad  in  ye  open  air  ;  ^  but  having  meet  one  day  without  in  ye 
yard,  it  being  an  exceeding  Cold  winday  day  (but  not  any  one 
took  any  harm  thereby  as  we  know  of)  we  did  the  next  week 
procure  Some  boards  and  made  up  a  Shelter  in  ye  yard  by  the 
House  side  for  to  meet  the  next  Lord's  Day  and  so  on  ;  but 
when  the  next  Lord's  day  came,  in  the  morning  the  doors  were 
opened  we  knew  not  by  whom. 

Perhaps  the  Court  did  not  care  to  venture  for  too 
long  a  time  openly  to  disregard  the  mandate  of  the 
king,  requiring  : 

That  freedom  and  liberty  of  conscience  be  given  to  such  per- 

1  Mr.  Willard,  in  his  "  Ne  Sutor, "  &c.,  or  "  Brif  Animadversions 
upon  the  New  England  Anabaptists  late  Fallacious  Narrative  wherein 
the  Notorious  Mistakes  and  Falsehoods  by  them  Published  are  De- 
tected," says:  "They  sullenly  meet  in  the  open  Air  on  a  cold  day, 
though  a  large  house  and  their  usual  place  of  meeting  stood  just  by." 
But  then  these  persons,  as  teacher  Willard  said  uf  Gold  and  Osborn, 
were  "heady  and  violent  men." 


112  NEW  p:.\GI,AXD  S   STRUGGLES 

sons  as  desire  to  serve  (^lod  in  the  way  of  the  Church  of  l"n,t,'land, 
so  as  not  thereby  be  made  obnoxious  or  discountenanced  from 
their  sharing  in  the  government,  much  less  that  they  or  any 
othei  of  his  Majesty's  subjects  (not  being  Papists)  who  do  not 
agree  in  the  Congregational  way,  be  by  law  subjected  to  fines  or 
forfeitures,  or  other  incapacities. 

As  I^Llders  Russell,  Hull,  and  others  said,  the  king's 
wish  is  that  "we  (Baptists)  should  enjoy  liberty  of  our 
meetings  in  the  manner  as  other  of  his  protestant  sub- 
jects." This  royal  order  reached  here  near  the  end  of 
December,  1679.  Yet  on  May  11,  1680,  the  Court 
having  been  "informed  that  there  is  a  publicke  meet- 
ing-house erected  in  Boston  where  some  doe  ordinarily 
meete  contrary  to  the  law  of  May,  1679,"  summoned 
again  the  leaders  of  the  church,  who  "appeared  before 
the  Court  at  the  time,  and,  after  their  defence  made, 
withdrew,  sent  in  their  humble  peticon  humbly  desiring 
the  Court's  favour,"  &c.  Whereupon  the  Court  on  May 
19  "granted  them  their  petition  so  farr  as  to  forgive 
them  their  offence  past,  but  still  prohibited  them  as  a 
Society  of  themselves,  or  joyned  with  others,  to  meete 
in  that  publicke  place  they  have  built,  or  any  other 
publicke  house,  except  such  as  are  allowed  by  lawfull 
authoritje." 

Little  did  the  authorities  of  that  time  dream  that  in 
a  hundred  years  less  one  from  that  date,  a  pastor  of 
this  same  Baptist  church  (Dr.  Stillman)  would  be 
chosen  to  preach  the  sermon  on  election  day,'  and  that 

'  "A  Sermon  to  the  Honorable  Council,  &c.,  May  26,  1779,  by 
Samuel  Stillman,  a.  m.,  Render  to  Ctesar  the  things  that  are  Cesar's 
and  to  God  the  things  that  are  God's,  Mark  12  :  17."  Backus  informs 
us  that  78  out  of  86  voted  for  Mr.  Stillman  as  preacher,  and  that  the 
sermon  was  printed  and  sent  throughout  the  State  by  order  of  authority. 


THE    PURITANS  II3 

in  about  three-fourths  of  a  century  after  this,  Jan.  8, 
1852,  another  pastor  (Dr.  Neale)  would  likewise  dis- 
course before  the  magistracy  of  the  commonwealth, 
taking  as  his  subject  :  "  Religious  Liberty,  derived 
directly  from  the  King  of  heaven  ;  not  regarded  as  a 
matter  of  toleration  but  a  heaven-descended  and  in- 
alienable right." 

But  better  days  were  soon  in  store  for  this  church, 
for  in  March,  1682,  the  Court  —with  some  stretching  of 
the  truth,  we  think — informed  the  king  that  "as  for  the 
Anabaptists,  they  are  now  subject  to  no  other  penal 
statutes  than  those  of  the  Congregational  way."  I 
think  for  myself  that  it  still  fared  hard  with  those  who 
persistently  refused  to  walk  in  this  "  Congregational 
way."  In  this  same  year  of  grace  the  following  oppres- 
sive act  was  passed  against  William  Screven,  whom  a 
few  Baptists  in  Kittery,  Me.,  desired  to  be  ordained  as 
their  pastor  by  the  aid  of  their  brethren  in  Boston  : 

The  Court  having  considered  the  offensive  speeches  of  WilHam 
Screven,  viz.,  his  rash  and  inconsiderate  words  tending  to  blas- 
phemy, do  adjudge  the  dehnquent,  for  his  offence,  to  pay  ten 
pounds  into  the  treasury  of  the  county  or  province.  And  further, 
the  Court  doth  forbid  and  discharge  the  said  Screven,  under  any 
pretence,  to  keep  any  private  e.xercise  at  his  own  house  or  else- 
where, upon  the  Lord's  days,  either  in  Kittery  or  other  place 
within  the  limits  of  this  province,  and  is  for  the  future  enjoined 
to  observe  the  public  worship  of  God  in  our  public  assemblies 
upon  the  Lord's  days,  according  to  the  laws  here  established  in 
this  province,  upon  such  penalties  as  the  law  requires  upon  such 
neglect  of  the  premises.' 


1  For  Mr.  Screven's  further  experiences  in  Maine,  see  Dr.  Burrage's 
'•  Baptists  in  New  England,"  and  Prof.  Newman's  "  History  of  the 
Baptist  Churches  in  the  United  States."    Mr.  Screven  afterward  became 


114  NKW  KNGI.AND'S   STRUCxGI.ES 

As  another  sign  of  seemingly  better  times,  we  notice 
that  a  Synod's  Confession  of  Faith,  pubHshed  in  1680, 
after  speaking  of  what  may  be  lawfully  called  to  ac- 
count and  proceeded  against  by  the  censures  of  the 
church  and  by  the  power  of  the  civil  magistrate,  then 
adds  :  "  Yet  in  such  differences  about  the  doctrines  of 
the  gospel  or  ways  of  the  worship  of  God,  as  may 
befal  men  exercising  a  good  conscience,  manifesting 
it  in  their  conversation,  and  holding  the  foundation, 
and  duly  observing  the  rules  of  peace  and  order — there 
is  no  warrant  for  the  magistrate  to  abridge  them  of 
their  liberty."  We  are  thankful  for  this  encouraging 
word.  And  vet,  at  the  first  session  of  this  so-called 
"Reforming  Synod,"  in  1679,  among  the  thirteen 
specified  "  evils  that  have  provoked  the  Lord  to  bring 
his  judgment  on  New  England,"  this  is  mentioned  as 
one,  a  remissness  in  testifying  against  Quakers  and 
Baptists  !     I  think  it  must  be  something  over  a  century 

the  founder  and  first  pastor  of  the  church  in  Charleston,  S.  C,  which 
place  he  was  strongly  but  vainly  urged  to  leave  by  the  Boston  church, 
that  he  might  become  its  pastor.  He  was  a  native  of  England,  but  was 
licensed  by  the  church  in  Boston.  The  Baptist  cause  in  the  South  is 
somewhat  indebted  to  Boston  for  two  other  efficient  laborers,  Shubal 
Stearns,  who  was  born  in  Boston,  1706,  and  Peter  P.  Roots,  A.  M., 
who  joined  the  Boston  church  in  1792.  For  some  account  of  their 
labors,  see  Cathcart's  "  Encyclopcedia  "  and  Backus'  "History,"  H., 
420.  Mr.  Stearns,  like  Backus,  was  first  a  Separatist  and  then  a 
Baptist,  and  both  gentlemen  became  such  about  the  same  time. 
Most  wonderful  stories  are  told  of  the  enchantments  of  his  eyes 
and  voice.  He  and  his  brother-in-law,  Daniel  Marshall,  of  Connec- 
ticut, were  remarkal)ly  successful  in  establishing  Baptist  churches  in  the 
South.  Samuel  Harris  who  was  baptized  by  Marshall,  was  another 
most  efficient  Ba]itist  leader.  In  Southern  15aptist  history,  Stearns, 
Marshall,  and  Ilairis  may  be  reckoned  to  have  attained  unto  "the 
first  three." 


THE   PURITANS  II5 

after  the  above  gracious  utterances  were  made,  that  the 
Baptists  outside  of  Boston  heard  much  about  this 
leniency  of  the  Puritan  Court  and  Church.  As  late 
as  1784  three  men,  members  of  a  Baptist  church  in 
Cambridge  (Arlington),  were  imprisoned  for  non-pay- 
ment of  ministerial  rates.  Their  case  was  carried 
through  the  Courts  in  1785,  and  was  turned  against 
the  Baptists, — by  the  ambiguity  of  the  word  he  in  the 
Constitution, — '  which  cost  them  more  than  a  hundred 
dollars.-     The  Warrgn  Association,  the  next  year 

Resoh'ed,  That  as  our  denomination  in  this  Commonwealth 
have  been  long  oppressed  by  the  CongregationaHsts  who  have 
claimed  the  power  of  supporting  religious  ministers  by  tax  and 
compulsion  ;  and  as  in  consequence  of  this,  our  brethren  in 
Cambridge,  besides  their  time  and  trouble,  haue  lately  been  at 
the  expense  of  thirty-three  pounds,  fifteen  shillings,  we  earnestly 
recommend  that  each  church  in  this  Association  raise  a  propor- 
tion of  that  sum  as  soon  as  may  be,  and  forward  the  same  to 
Mr.  Isaac  Skillman,  of  Boston,  or  to  Mr.  Thomas  Green,  of 
Cambridge,  for  the  relief  of  the  sufferers. 

The  Baptist  church  in  Boston  did,  from  the  last 
years  of  the  seventeenth  century,  certainly  enjoy 
thenceforth  a  special  degree  of  liberty,  and  all  that 
Isaac  Backus,  the  "Agent  of  Liberty,"  a  hundred  years 
later  asked  for  the  churches  throughout  the  State  was 
that  they  might  have  the  same  liberty  which  their 
Baptist  brethren  enjoyed  in  Boston. 

1  "  He  "  was  construed  to  mean  the  teacher  who  was  to  receive  the 
money,  and  not  the  man  who  paid  it,  and  so  the  Baptist  "  committee  con- 
cluded that  our  ministers  should  demand  it  again  ;  all  but  myself,  who 
could  not  concur  therewith.  Our  Elders  Stillman,  Skillman,  Smith,  and 
Blood,  all  thus  differed  from  me  "  (Backus). 

*  Backus'  "History,"  II.,  328-9. 


Il6  NKW  kx(;land\s  strugglks 

When  tlicsc  heller  times  had  airi\-e(l  for  the  Boston 
Baptists,  most  of  the  founders  of  the  church  had  passed 
away,  leaving  others  to  enjoy  the  fruits  of  their  labors 
and  sufferings.  "  Their  trouble  and  temptations," 
wrote  Elder  Russell,  in  1680,  "followed  one  upon  the 
neck  of  another,  like  the  waves  of  the  sea  ;  but  these 
precious  servants  of  the  Lord,  having  in  some  good 
measure  counted  the  cost  beforehand,  were  not  moved 
from  [by]  any  of  these  things,  but  were  cheerfully 
carried  on  by  the  hand  of  the  Lord  upon  them  through 
the  afflictions  and  reproaches  they  met  with,  and  are 
most  of  them  now  at  rest  with  the  Lord."  Gould,  the 
first  pastor,  died  in  1674  (or  1675);  Turner,  in  1676; 
Russell  himself,  in  1680  ;  Dr.  Clarke,  of  Newport,  1676  ; 
Holmes,  his  successor,  1682;  Myles,  of  Swanzey,  in 
1683  ;  and  Roger  Williams,  in  1684.  These  all  died 
in  faith,  not  having  received  the  promise. 

It  was  not  till  1728  that  the  first  measure  was  passed 
whereby. Baptists  and  Quakers  could  be  partially  re- 
lieved from  paying  rates  or  taxes  to  Pedobaptist  min. 
isters  and  churches.  But  this  law  merely  exempted 
their  polls  from  taxation,  and  this  too  under  the  proviso 
"that  such  persons  do  usually  attend  the  meetings  of 
their  respective  societies,  assembling  upon  the  Lord's 
Day  for  the  worship  of  God,  and  that  they  live  within 
five  miles  of  the  place  of  such  meeting."  "Here  we 
may  see,"  said  Backus,  "  that  tyranny  is  always  the 
same.  'Go  ye,  serve  the  Lord;  only  let  your  flocks 
and  your  herds  be  stayed,'  said  Pharaoh.  Let  their 
bodies  be  exempted,  but  their  estates  and  faculties  be 
taxed,  said  the  Massachusetts.  '  I  will  let  you  go  that 
ye  may  sacrifice  to  the   Lord  your  God  in  the  wilder- 


THE   PURITANS  II7 

ness  ;  only  you  shall  not  go  very  far  away,'  said  Pha- 
raoh. Go  but  five  miles,  said  the  Massachusetts." 
Other  exemption  laws — which  will  be  noticed  by-and- 
by — were  subsequently  enacted,  but  these,  hampered 
with  many  restrictions,  were  very  oppressive,  and  if  the 
unsympathizing  authorities  neglected  their  duty,  or 
even  violated  these  laws,  no  penalty  was  affixed  to  this 
neglect  or  transgression. 

One  other  and  truly  marvelous  occurrence  in  the 
early  history  of  the  First  Baptist  Church  in  Boston 
may  here  be  noticed.  On  May  21,  17 18,  Mr.  Elisha 
Callender,  the  first  classically  educated  Baptist  minister 
in  this  country,  was  ordained  its  pastor  by  the  help  of 
three  Congregational  ministers  of  Boston — a  proceeding 
which  called  forth  some  remonstrance  from  a  few  Bap- 
tist churches.  The  names  of  these  three  were  Dr.  In- 
crease Mather,  who  in  his  writings  had  affirmed  that 
" Antipedobaptism  is  a  blasted  error";  Dr.  Cotton 
Mather,  the  greatest  scholar  and  most  prolific  writer  of 
the  age ;  and  Mr.  John  Webb,  the  first  pastor  of  the 
New  North  Church.  Dr.  Increase  Mather  gave  the 
hand  of  fellowship.  His  son,  Dr.  Cotton  Mather, 
preached  from  the  text,  Romans  15:7,"  Receive  ye  one 
another,  as  Christ  also  received  us,  to  the  glory  of  God," 
the  running  title  of  the  sermon  being :  "  Good  men 
united."  '     In  it  he  says  :    "  If  the  brethren  in  whose 


1  The  full  title-page  of  the  sermon,  as  printed,  reads  thus  : 

"Brethren  dwelling  together  in  Unity. 

The  true  Basis  for  an  Union  among  the  people  of  God  offered  and  as- 
serted ;  in  a  Sermon  preached  at  the  Ordination  of  a  pastor  in  the  Church 
of  the  Baptists  at  Boston  in  New  England 

by  Cotton  Mather,  D.  D." 


ii8  NEW  England's  struggles 

house  we  are  now  convened  met  with  anything  too  un- 
brotherly  (in  former  times),  they  now  with  satisfaction 
hear  us  expressing  our  dislike  of  everything  that  has 
looked  like  persecution  in  the  days  that  have  passed 
over  us."  This  surprising  comity  shown  to  Mr.  Cal- 
lender,  the  young  graduate  of  Harvard  College, — of 
which  Dr.  Increase  Mather  had  been  president, — was 
the  principal  means  which  moved  Thomas  Hollis,  Esq., 
a  merchant  prince  and  Baptist  of  London,  to  become, 
as  Cotton  Mather  expressed  it,  "  the  greatest  benefactor 
it  ever  had  in  the  world."  Little  did  that  "godly 
Calvinist,"  Thomas  Hollis,  dream  that  the  theology  of 
Unitarianism'  would  ever  be  taught  from  that  chair,  the 
incumbent  of  which,  by  express  stipulation,  was  to  be 
a  man  "of  sound  and  orthodox  principles."  Dr.  Ed- 
ward Wigglesworth,  the  first  Hollis  Professor  of  Divinity, 
in  his  testimonial  to  Mr.  Hollis,  speaks  of  it  as  "  no 
mean  stroke  in  his  character,"  that  in  the  directions  of 
his  bequests  "he  hath  from  first  to  last,  taken  the  ut- 
most care  to  put  it,  as  far  as  was  possible,  out  of  our 
power  to  misimprove  them,  or  in  any  measure  to  defeat 
his  pious  intentions."  In  \'ol.  IV.,  of  Crosby's  "  His- 
tory of  the  English  Baptists,"  are  found  other  testi- 
monials to  his  character  and  worth,  by  Isaac  Green- 
wood, Hollis  Professor  of  Philosophy  and  Mathe- 
matics ;  by  Benjamin  Wadsworth,  president  of  the 
college ;  and  by  Rev.  Benjamin  Colman,  of  the  Brattle 

Cotton  Mather  was  colleague  witli  liis  father  in  the  Old  North  Church 
(founded  1650),  the  church  of  which  Henry  Ware,  Junior,  and  Ralph 
Waldo  Emerson  were  afterward  pastors.  Notwithstanding  the  "remon- 
strance "  Ijefore  referred  to,  the  church  invited  Congregational  ministers 
to  assist  in  ordaining  Mr.  Jeremiah  Coudy,  the  successor  of  Mr.  Gal- 
lender. 


THE   PURITANS  II9 

Street  Church,  who  was  Mr.  Hollis'  principal  corre- 
spondent in  this  country,  and  who  pronounced  his 
eulogy  at  a  lecture  in  Boston,  April  i,  1731,  before  the 
authorities  of  Massachusetts.  His  father,  Thomas 
Hollis,  and  his  brother,  John  Hollis,  were  alike  dis- 
tinguished for  their  liberal  benefactions. 

Before  leaving  the  Bay  Colony  we  would  make  men- 
tion of  an  important  Synod  of  the  elders  and  messen- 
gers of  the  churches,  held  in  1662,  by  order  of  the 
Court,  to  consider  two  questions,  the  first  of  which 
was:  "Who  are  the  subjects  of  baptisme  .-* " — a  theo- 
logical question  which,  with  its  related  theme  of  infant 
church-membership,  was  agitated  and  discussed  by  the 
Puritan  churches  oftener,  I  think,  than  any  other  during 
their  entire  history.  At  this  Synod  the  so-called  half- 
way covenant — by  a  vote  of  sixty  against  less  than  ten — 
was  adopted,  by  which  persons  baptized  in  infancy,  and 
upright  in  life,  became,  on  "owning  the  covenant,"  not 
communicants,  indeed,  but  quasi  church-members,  and 
as  such  were  allowed  to  have  their  children  baptized. 
From  this  position  it  was  but  a  short  and  easy  step  for 
Solomon  Stoddard,  of  Northampton,  to  take  when  he 
maintained  that  such  half-way  church-members  had 
"  the  right  of  visible  saints  to  the  Lord's  Supper, 
though  they  be  destitute  of  a  saving  work  of  God's 
Spirit  on  their  hearts,"  and  that  for  such  persons  "the 
Lord's  Supper  is  a  converting  ordinance."  Very 
naturally  it  came  to  pass  that  persons  would  connect 
themselves  in  this  half-way  manner  with  the  church  for 
the  sake  of  the  honors  and  privileges  of  church-mem- 
bership. In  defense  of  this  half-way  covenant  scheme 
Mr.  Mitchell,  of  Cambridge,  says  :  "  We  make  account 


I20  NKW  ?:nt;LAXD\S    STRrOGLKS 

that  if  we  keep  baptism  within  the  non-excommunica- 
ble,  and  the  Lord's  Supper  within  the  compass  of  those 
that  have  (unto  charity)  somewhat  of  the  power  of  god- 
liness or  grace  in  exercise,  we  shall  be  near  about  the 
right  middle  i^'ay  of  church  reformation."  This  same 
view,  which  was  first  suggested  and  favored  by  the  Con- 
necticut colonists,  was  virtually  adopted  by  a  smaller 
Synod  held  by  "order"  of  the  Court  in  1657,  the 
result  of  which  was  published  about  two  years  after- 
ward, entitled,  "  A  Disputation  concerning  church- 
members  and  their  children,  in  answer  to  twenty-one 
questions,"  which  c[uestions,  with  their  answers,  may 
be  seen  in  Hubbard's  ''  History,"  pp.  563-569,  or  Felt's 
"Ecclesiastical  History,"  H.,  154.  Nearly  all  these 
questions  related  to  two  points  :  What  children  are  to 
be  baptized  .''  and.  What  relation  do  they,  when  bap- 
tized, sustain  to  the  church  }  I  scarcely  need  say  that 
the  Synods  did  not  effectually  settle  all  these  contro- 
verted questions. 

Note. — This  half-way  covenant  scheme,  with  its  half-way 
church-membership  of  adults  (which  was  adopted  with  much 
consideration  and  prayer,  as  the  best  preservative  of  true  religion 
and  orthodoxy),  and  the  parish  system  (without  which  a  Congre- 
gational church,  though  boasting  of  its  authority  and  indepen- 
dence, was  held  in  aftertimes,  by  a  decision  of  Chief  Justice 
Isaac  Parker,  to  have  no  legal  existence),  are  without  doubt  the 
two  most  potent  causes  of  the  great  defection  to  Unitarianism  in 
the  first  c[uarter  of  this  century,  by  which  over  eighty  of  the  pres- 
ent evangelical  churches  of  Massachusetts  were  constrained  to 
separate  from  the  religious  societies  with  whicli  they  had  been 
connected,  of  which  number  forty-si.\  churches,  with  a  majority 
of  its  members,  were  "dri\en  from  their  houses  of  worship  by 
town  or  ]);uisli  \otes."  I'lie  whole  membership  of  eighty- one 
churches,  as  stated  by  Dr.  Joseph  S.  Clark,  was  five  thousand 


THE    PURITANS  121 

one  hundred  and  eighty-two,  of  which  number  only  one  thousand 
two  hundred  and  eighty-two  were  left  to  the  parishes  after  the 
separation.  In  some  instances,  only  two  or  three  church-mem- 
bers remained  with  the  parish,  yet  the  exiled  churches  were 
obliged  to  relinquish  their  meeting-houses,  their  records,  their 
communion  service,  and  their  funds,  which  were  sacredly  given 
to  support  a  learned,  able,  and  orthodox  ministry.  If  not  a 
single  church-member  remained  to  a  parish,  still  such  exiled 
church,  as  to  all  civil  purposes,  would  be  regarded  as  legally 
non-existent,  while  the  deserted  parish  could  institute  a  new 
church  in  its  stead.  Dr.  Clark  estimates  that  in  consequence  of 
this  defection  "one  hundred  and  twenty-six  places  of  worship, 
with  their  appurtenances  of  parish  and  church  funds,  were  lost 
to  the  cause  of  evangelical  religion."  Such  is  one  of  the  bitter 
fruits  of  the  Church-and-State  system  of  our  fathers.  The 
above  decision,  e\en  if  legally  correct  and  authoritative  (of 
which  there  are  the  gravest  doubts),  is  to  my  mind  a  monstrous 
injustice,  and  I  envy  not  the  position  of  those  ministers  who  are 
supported  in  whole  or  in  part  by  such  wrested  orthodox  church 
funds.  Indeed,  I  know  not  why,  by  moral  right  or  the  "  law  of 
equity,"  those  funds  should  not  now  be  restored  to  the  churches 
which  have  been  thus  legally  robbed,  or,  where  this  is  impracti- 
cable, then  to  any  of  the  seven  great  societies  which  orthodox 
Congregationalists  have  formed  for  the  spread  of  evangelical 
truth.  This  famous  Dedham  case,  "  Baker  7's.  Fales,"  1820,  is 
fully  reported  in  Vol.  X\T.  of  the  Massachusetts  Reports,  and 
is  well  summarized  in  Dr.  McKenzie's  "First  Church  of  Cam- 
bridge," pp.  272-284.  See  also  the  first  and  second  volumes  of 
the  "Spirit  of  the  Pilgrims." 


PART  II 
THE  PILGRIMS 

RELATION    TO    THE    ANABAPTISTS    AND    QUAKERS 

We  veryly  beleeve  and  trust  ye  Lord  is  with  us,  unto  whom 
and  whose  service  we  have  given  ourselves  in  many  trialls;  and 
that  he  will  graciously  prosper  our  indeavours  according  to  ye 
simplicitie  of  our  harts  therein. — Robinson  and  Breivster  to  Ed- 
win Sandys,  of  tJie  I'irginia  Company,  i6iy . 

So  they  lefte  yt  goodly  and  pleasante  citie  [Leyden],  which 
had  been  ther  resting  place  near  12  years;  but  they  knew  they 
were  Pilgrims,  and  looked  not  much  on  those  things,  but  lift  up 
their  eyes  to  ye  heavens,  their  dearest  countrie,  and  cjuieted  their 
spirits. — Bradford'' s  Hist.  Plym.  Plant.,  p.  jS. 

Turning  now  to  the  "Colony  of  New  Plymouth," 
let  us  consider  how  the  Anabaptists  and  Quakers  were 
treated  by  the  Pilgrims.  Before  investigating  these 
points,  we  would  learn  something  of  the  spirit  and 
purpose  of  our  Pilgrim  fathers  which,  in  great  part, 
were  quite  similar  to  those  of  the  Puritans.  In  order 
to  this,  let  us  take  an  e.xcursion  first  to  Clark's  Island, 
in  Plymouth  harbor,  where  they  spent  their  first  Sim- 
day  on  New  ICngland  soil,  and  there  read  on  Pulpit 
Rock  the  engraven  words  :  "  On  the  Sabboth  day  wee 
rested  "  ;  thence  to  the  Pilgrim  Monument,  where  stands 
the  colossal  statue  of  Faith  with  her  extended  right 
arm  pointing  upward,  and  her  left  hand  clasping  the 
Bible  at   her  side  ;  and   finally,   uj)  the  steep   "  Burial 


THE    PILGRIMS  123 

Hill,"  that  there  we  may  read  on  its  most  conspicuous 
monument  the  words  taken  from  the  "  Epistle  Dedi- 
catory," or  Introduction  of  Robert  Cushman's  sermon 
(preached  from  i  Cor.  10  :  24,  on  December  9,  1621), 
on  "The  Sin  and  Danger  of  Self-Love  "  : 

And  you,  my  loving  friends,  the  adventurers  to  this  Planta- 
tion, as  your  care  has  been  first  to  settle  religion  here  before 
either  profit  or  popularity,  so  I  pray  you,  go  on.  .  .  I  rejoice 
.  .  .  that  you  thus  honor  God  with  your  riches,  and  I  trust  you 
shall  be  repayed  again  double  and  treble  in  this  world,  yea,  and 
the  memory  of  this  action  shall  never  die.^ 

Little  did  they  dream  that  the  Sunday  excursion 
trains — now,  indeed,  prohibited  by  the  railroad  commis- 
sioners— would  ever  be  run  well-nigh  over  the  spot 
where  they  should  be  laid  to  rest. 

The  purpose  by  which  the  Pilgrims  were  animated 
is  also  very  plainly  expressed  by  themselves  in  the 
opening  sentence  of  the  compact  signed  in  the  cabin 
of  the  Mayflower. 

Having  undertaken,  for  the  glory  of  God  and  the  advance- 
ment of  the  Christian  faith  and  the  honour  of  our  King  and 
Countrie,  a  voyage  to  plant  the  first  Colonie  in  the  northerne  parts 
of  Virginia,  doe  by  these  presents  solemnly  and  mutually,  in 
the  presence  of  God  and  of  one  another,  covenant  and  combine 

1  This  sermon,  which  was  first  printed  in  1622,  and  has  since  been  fre- 
quently published  in  pamphlet  form,  is  given  in  part  in  Young's  "  Chron- 
icles of  the  Pilgrims."  The  author,  whose  son  Thomas  was  an  elder  in 
the  Plymouth  Church  many  years,  was  neither  a  minister  nor  an  elder,  yet 
he  gives  ministers  (perhaps  of  our  day)  very  good  advice.  He  says  in 
his  introduction  :  "  If  any  shall  think  it  too  rude  and  unlearned  for  this 
curious  age,  let  them  know  that  to  paint  out  the  gospel  in  plain  and  flat 
English,  amongst  a  company  of  plain  Englishmen  (as  we  are),  is  the  best 
and  most  profitable  preaching." 


124  ^^K^^'  knglaxd's  strl-ggles 

ourselves  together  into  a  c\  ill  body  polictick  for  our  better  order- 
ing and  preservation  and  furtherance  of  the  ends  aforesaid,  etc. 

Also  in  the  "  Genei-al  Fundamentals  "  prefixed  to 
the  laws  of  New  Plymouth.  1672,  are  these  words  : 

The  great  and  known  end  of  the  first  comers  was  that  .  .  . 
they  might,  with  the  liberty  of  a  good  conscience,  enjoy  the 
pure  Scriptural  Worship  of  (lod  without  the  mixture  of  human 
inventions;  and  that  their  children  after  them  might  walke  in  the 
Holy  waves  of  the  Lord. 

The  government  of  Plymouth  Colony,  like  that  of 
Massachusetts,  was  theocratic,  the  Court,  in  the  spirit 
and  after  the  "patterne  of  God's  Ancient  Lawe,"  and 
as  God's  representative,  taking  like  care  both  of  church 
and  commonwealth.  As  a  matter  of  fact,  those  who 
held  government  office  were,  though  by  an  unwritten 
law,  required  to  be  church-members  who  had  taken 
the  freeman's  oath.  It  is,  however,  commonly  main- 
tained, and  I  suppose  it  must  be  true,  that  Captain 
Miles  Standish,  who  held  high  offices  in  the  govern- 
ment, was  never  a  church-member.  And  yet  I  find  it 
hard  to  believe  this.'      I  think,  moreover,  that  all  Plym- 


1  Standish,  according  to  report,  used  at  times  a  pretty  strong  vernacular, 
and  was  a  man  of  somewhat  rash  and  fiery  disposition,  or,  as  John  Robin- 
son expressed  it,  "  of  warm  temper."  But  Morton,  the  secretary  of  the 
Court,  and  his  contemporary  for  many  years,  says  that  he  "  fell  asleep  in 
the  I>ord  "      A  threnodist  also  of  that  time  bewails, 

The  faithful  Standish,  freed  from  horrid  p.-iin, 
To  be  with  Christ,  in  truth,  the  greatest  gain. 

The  chronologist,  Prince,  also  speaks  of  him  in  the  same  strain.  It  is 
stated  that  of  his  books,  some  forty  in  number,  nearly  twenty  were  devo- 
tional or  religious.  He  appears  to  have  been  a  regular  attendant  on  pub- 
lic worship.  While  residing  in  Duxbury,  he  and  three  others  of  the  more 
noted  Pilgrims,  in    1632,  "  promise  to  remove  their  families  to  live  in  the 


THE   PILGRIMS  1^5 

outh  County  historians,  without  any  exception,  hold 
that  in  Plymouth,  as  in  the  other  colonies  (that  of  Con- 
necticut excepted),  '*  church-membership  was  an  indis- 
pensable qualification  for  freemen."  In  1654,  the 
Court  at  Plymouth,  appointing  Thomas  Prince  to  ad- 
minister government  at  Kennebec  River,  excused  him 
from  requiring  them  to  conform  with  the  peculiarities 
of  the  present  Colony,  such  (according  to  Mr.  F'elt's 
view)  as  the  demand  for  them  to  be  church-members 
before  they  could  vote  for  the  legislature  or  be  elected 
to  this  body — the  Court's  "  intention  being  not  to  expect 
theire  strict  observance  of  euerything  peculiaire  to  our- 
selves," so  that  those  who  "  haue  taken  the  oath  of 
fidelitie  shall  acte  as  if  they  were  actually  freemen." 
In  1665  King  Charles'  four  commissioners  proposed 
to  the  Court  of  Plymouth  that  "  All  men  of  compe- 
tent estates  and  ciuell  conversations,  though  of  differ- 
ent judgments,  may  be  admitted  to  be  freemen  and 
have  libertie  to  choose  and  bee  chosen  officers  both 
ciuell  and  milletary."  Four  years  after  this  the  Court 
enacted  "  that  none  shall  voate  in  Town  meetings  but 
ffreemen  or    ffreeholders   of    twenty  pounds    rateable 

town  (Plymouth)  in  the  wintertime,  that  they  may  the  better  repair  to  the 
worship  of  God."  In  his  will  he  bequeathes  "three  pounds  to  Marcye 
Robinson,  whom  I  tenderly  love  for  her  grandfather's  [John  Robinson] 
sacke."  He  makes  his  "loving  friends,  Mr.  Timothy  Hatherly  and  Capt. 
James  Cudworth,  supervissors  of  this  Will,  and  that  they  will  be  pleased 
to  doe  the  office  of  Christian  love  to  be  healpful  to  my  poor  wife  and  chil- 
dren by  their  Christian  counsell  and  advisee  (whom),  though  neither  they 
nor  I  shall  be  able  to  recompenc,  I  doe  not  doubt  but  the  Lord  will." 

Of  course,  the  case  of  Standish,  for  peculiar  reasons,  may  have  been 
exceptional.  And,  as  I  should  judge,  nearly  all  the  writers  who  have  ex- 
pressed an  opinion  on  this  matter,  either  deny  his  church-membership  or 
doubt  whether  he  was  ever  "  under  covenant." 


1 2b  NEW  ENGLAND  S   STRUGGLES 

estate  and  of  good  conversation,  having  taken  the  oath 
of  fidelitie." 

It  should  be  stated  that  the  Court  in  its  response  to 
the  commissioners  averred  that  it  had  been  its  "  con- 
stant practice  to  admit  men  [it  omits  the  important  word 
'  all '  ]  of  competent  estates  and  ciuell  conversation, 
though  of  different  judgments,  yett  being  otherwise  or- 
thodox, to  bee  freemen,"  etc.  And  there  is  reason  for 
believing  that  the  Pilgrims,  while  demanding  a  religious 
character  and  orthodox  principles  in  their  candidates, 
were  not  so  strict  as  the  Puritans  in  requiring  the  condi- 
tion of  freemen  as  a  qualification  for  holding  town  offices, 
or  voting  for  members  of  the  General  Court.  In  Scit- 
uate,  which  was  formerly  niuch  the  most  populous  town 
in  Plymouth  Colony,  only  thirty-eight  persons  were  en- 
rolled as  "freemen"  during  the  first  sixteen  years, 
while  a  much  larger  number,  though  they  might  have 
been  church-members,  only  took  the  "  oath  of  fidel- 
itie," and  were  thus,  as  a  matter  of  fact,  if  not  of  law, 
debarred  from  office  in  the  colonial  government.  Wil- 
liam Vassall,  of  that  place,  one  of  the  wealthiest  and 
most  eminent  men  of  that  time,  though  he  was  a 
church-member  and  had  taken  the  oath  of  fidelity, — 
but  who  was  suspected  of  "leaning  to  the  Bishops," — 
was  never  promoted  to  government  office  in  Plym- 
outh Colony.  Dr.  A.  E.  Dunning,  in  his  "  Congrega- 
tionalists  in  America,"  p.  143,  states  that  "In  the 
Plymouth  Colony,  although  the  ecclesiastical  test  was 
not  applied,  the  restrictions  were  so  great  that  out  of 
thi-ec  thousand  persons  [in  1643  .']  onlv  two  hundred 
and  thirty  had  the  right  to  vote."  Thus  all  church- 
members  were  not  freemen,  but  certainly,  as  a  general 


THE    PILGRIMS  127 

rule,  all  freemen  were  church-members,  and  only  free- 
men could  be  members  of  the  General  Court.' 

It  has  been  frequently  asserted  that  the  Pilgrims  are 
not  chargeable  with  persecuting,  or,  at  least,  that  they 
never  persecuted  the  Baptists.  We  readily  concede 
that  those  whom  we  may  specifically  term  the  Pilgrim 
FATHERS,  or  the  first  generation  of  Pilgrims,  were  not 
guilty  of  persecution.  Not  until  after  the  long  reign 
of  Governor  Bradford  was  ended  by  his  death  in 
1657,  or  thirty-seven  years  after  "the  landing,"  do  we 
discover  any  trace  of  persecution.-  Nor  do  we  after 
this  discover  any  sign  of  persecution  either  of  Baptists 
or  Quakers  on  the  part  of  the  Pilgrim  descendants 
until  they  were  incited  thereto  by  the  Puritans  of  Mas- 
sachusetts Bay,  some  of  whom,  in  the  words  of  General 
James  Cudworth,  to  whom  reference  may  be  again 
made,  sought  to  put  the  "  Plymouth  saddle  on  the  Bay 
horse  "  for  a  persecuting  crusade.  The  term  Anabap- 
tists nowhere  occurs  in  the  Plymouth  Court  Records 
from  1633  to  1692,  inclusive.     Nor  is  there  found  any 

^  See  Baylies'  "Memoir  of  Plymouth  Colony,"  Part  I.,  29,  298,  and 
Felt's  "  Ecclesiastical  History  of  New  England,"  II.,  237. 

^  It  would  seem  that  this  good  man  was  taken  away  from  the  evil  or 
trouble  soon  to  come,  and  yet  at  a  time  when  he  could  hardly  be  spared. 
For  in  this  same  year,  as  Secretary  Morton  writes,  "  there  arrived  in  the 
Colony  many  of  that  pernicious  sect  called  Quakers,  whose  opinions  are  a 
composition  of  many  errors,  and  whose  practices  tend  greatly  to  the  dis- 
turbance both  of  Church  and  State."  And  there  were  others  also,  "  pre- 
tending a  great  zeal  for  liberty  of  conscience,  but  endeavouring  to  intro- 
duce such  a  liberty  of  will  as  would  have  proved  prejudicial  if  not  de- 
structive to  civil  and  church  societies."  It  would  appear  that  the  law 
passed  as  early  as  1637,  forbidding  any  individual  to  live  in  the  Colony 
without  the  consent  of  the  governor  or  two  of  the  Assistants,  failed  to 
keep  these  and  other  unwelcome  intruders  from  gaining  a  temporary  resi- 
dence. 


128  NEW  rxoland's  struggles 

law  in  all  that  time  which  applies  specifically  to  Ana- 
baptists. The  only  law  which  could  bear  somewhat 
heavily  against  them  and  other  dissenters  from  the 
standing  order  is  that  which  was  passed  in  1650,  as  we 
shall  presently  notice,  and  substantially  repeated  the 
next  year  with  an  added  penalty. 

There  is  abundant  evidence  that  the  Pilgrims  were  in- 
cited to  a  course  of  intolerance  by  interested  outsiders. 
As  early  as  1642  Governor  Bellingham  wrote  to  the 
Plymouth  governor,  urging  the  latter  to  "  consider  and 
advise  with  us  how  we  may  avoid  "  those  who  are  "se- 
cretly sowing  the  seed  of  familism  and  anabaptism." 

Four  years  later,  in  1646,  the  confederate  commis- 
sioners urged  each 

General  Corte  within  these  United  Colonies  that  as  they  haue 
layd  theire  foundations  and  measured  the  temple  of  God,  the 
worship  and  worshippers,  by  that  straight  Reed  God  hath  putt 
into  theire  hands,  so  they  would  walke  on  and  build  up  with  an 
undaunted  heart  and  unwearied  hand  according  to  the  same 
rules  and  palternes.  That  a  due  watch  be  kept  and  continued 
at  the  doors  of  God's  house  .  .  .  that  Anabaptisme,  familisme, 
Antinomianisme,  and  generally  that  all  errors  of  like  nature 
which  oppose,  undermine,  and  slight  either  the  Scriptures,  the 
Sabboth,  or  other  ordinance  of  God,  and  bring  in  and  cry  up 
unwarrantable  Reuelations,  inventions  of  men,  or  any  carnall 
liberty  under  a  deceitfull  collure  of  lil^erty  of  conscience  may  be 
seasonably  and  duly  supprest  ;  though  they  wish  as  much  for- 
bearance and  respect  may  be  had  of  tender  consciences  seeking 
light  as  may  stand  with  purity  of  religion  and  peace  of  the 
churches.  (The  Commissioners  of  Plymouth  [Timothy  Hatherly, 
of  Scituate,  and  John  Brown,  of  Rehoboth],  desire  further  con- 
sideration concerning  this  advise  given  to  the  generall  Corte. )* 


'Of   Mr.    llatlu'ily   we    .shall    speak   presently.      Mr.  John  l?rown  was 
Governor's  Assistant  as  early  as  1636,  and  for  many  years  held  high  of- 


THE   PILGRIMS  129 

The  commissioners  close  their  appeal  with  these 
beautiful  and  touching  words  : 

If  thus  wee  be  for  God  he  will  certainly  be  with  us.  And 
though  the  God  of  this  world  (as  he  is  stiled)  be  worshipped  and 
by  usurpation  sett  upon  his  throane  in  the  maine  and  greatest 
part  of  America,  yet  this  small  parte  and  portion  may  be  vindi- 
cated as  by  the  right  hand  of  Jehovah,  and  justly  called  Em- 
manuell's  land. 

But  this  advice  regarding  suppression  did  not  seem 
to  "take,"  and  so  three  years  after,  in  October,  1649, 
the  Massachusetts  Court  thus  addressed  the  "  Corte  " 
of  the  Pilgrims  : 

Wee  have  heard  heeretofore  of  diuerse  Anabaptists  arisen  up 
in  your  jurisdiction  and  connived  at  ;  but  being  but  few  wee  well 
hoped  that  it  might  have  pleased  God  by  the  endeavors  of  your- 
selves and  the  faithful  elders  with  yow,  to  have  reduced  such 
erring  men  againe  into  the  right  way.  But  now  to  our  great 
greife  wee  are  credibly  informed  that  your  patient  bearing  with 
such  men  hath  produced  another  effect,  namely,  the  multiplying 
and  encreasing  of  the  same  errors,  and  wee  feare  may  be  of 
other  errors  also,  if  timely  care  be  not  taken  to  suppresse  the 
same.  Particularly  wee  understand  that  within  this  few  weekes 
there  have  binn  at  Sea  Cunke  thirteene  or  fowerteene  rebaptised 
(a   swift  progresse  in  one  toune)  ;    yett  wee  heare  not  of  any 

fice  in  the  government.  He  was  so  much  "opposed  to  coercing  people 
to  support  the  ministry,  although  he  was  willing  to  contribute  his  full 
proportion  "  (see  Bliss'  "  Rehoboth  "  )  that  in  1655  he  promised  the  Court 
that  he  "would  engage  himself  in  behalf  of  those  who  were  the  inhabi- 
tants of  said  town  .  .  .  that  they  should  voluntarily  contribute  accord- 
ing to  their  estates  ;  and  if  any  of  them  fell  short  in  this  business,  he 
would  supply  that  want  of  his  own  estate  ;  and  this  he  would  make 
good  by  engaging  his  lands  for  seven  years  in  their  behalf  while  they 
staid,  though  he  himself  should  remove  from  the  place"  ;  and  this  pro- 
posal was  accepted  by  the  Court.  His  son,  James,  was  a  constituent 
member  of  Elder  Myies'  church  in  1663. 


130  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLEvS 

effectual  restriction  is  entended  thereabouts.  Lett  it  not,  wee 
pray  yow,  seeme  presumpti(>n  in  us  to  minde  yow  to  take  care  as 
well  of  the  suppressing  of  errors  as  of  the  majntenance  of  truth, 
God  equally  requiring  the  performance  of  both  at  the  hands  of 
Christian  magistrates,  but  rather  yow  will  consider  our  interest  is 
concerned  therein.  The  infeccon  of  such  diseases,  being  so 
neare  vs,  are  likely  to  spread  into  our  jurisdiccion  :  Tu7ic  iiia  res 
agitur  paries  cimi  prflxiinus  ardei}  Wee  are  vnited  by  con- 
federacy, by  faith,  by  neighborhood,  by  fellowship  in  our  suffer- 
ings as  exiles,  and  by  other  Christian  bonds,  and  wee  hope 
neither  Sathan  nor  any  of  his  instruments  shall,  by  theis  or  any 
other  errors,  disvnite  vs,  and  that  wee  shall  neuer  have  cawse  to 
repent  vs  of  our  so  neare  conjunction  with  yow,  but  that  wee 
shall  both  so  equally  and  zealously  vphold  all  the  truths  of  God 
revealed,  that  wee  may  render  a  comfortable  accompt  to  him 
that  hath  sett  vs  in  our  places,  and  betrusted  vs  with  the  keeping 
of  both  tables,  of  which  well  hoping,  wee  cease  your  farther 
trouble,  and  rest, 

Your  very  loving  freinds  and  brethren. 

What  active  measures  the  Pilgrims  would  have 
taken  to  "suppress"  the  Anabaptists  had  they  not 
been  incited  to  this  business  by  the  Puritans  of  the 
Bay,  can  never  be  known.  But  after  so  much  urging 
from  abroad,  and  ever  being  "  loath,"  as  Winslow  once 
said,  "to  displease  the  Bay,"  they  felt  bound,  as  it 
appears  to  me,  to  attempt  suppression  in  a  mild  way. 
And  so  in  about  ten  days  after  the  gratuitous  and  un- 
solicited advice  respecting  the  distant  "  Sea  Cunke 
Anabaptists  "  was  given,  "  Obadia  Hullme  "  (Holmes) 
and  two  others,  "  were  bound  one  for  another  in  the 
sum  of  tenn  pound  apeece  to  appear  at  the  next 
General  Court,"  in  June,  1650,  on  which  occasion,  as 
Holmes  writes : 


'  Wien  your  neighbor's  house  is  afire,  your  own  is  in  danger. 


THE   PILGRIMS  I31 

We  met  with  four  petitions  against  our  whole  company  to  take 
some  speedy  course  to  suppress  us  ;  one  from  our  own  plantation 
[Seaconck]  with  thirty  hands  to  it  ;  one  from  the  church,  as 
they  call  it,  at  Taunton  ;  one  from  all  the  ministers  in  our  [Plym- 
outh] Colony  except  two,  if  I  mistake  not  ;  and  one  from  the 
Court  at  Boston,  in  the  Massachusetts,  under  their  Secretary's 
hand  ;  whereupon  the  Court  straitly  charged  us  to  desist,  and 
neither  to  ordain  officers,  nor  to  baptize,  nor  to  break  bread 
together,  nor  yet  to  meet  upon  the  first  day  of  the  week. 

In  less  than  a  week  after  this  the  Court  enacted  as 
its  first  law  relating  to  this  matter  : 

That  whosoeuer  shall  hereafter  set  vp  any  churches  or  pub- 
licke  meetings  diverse  from  those  allreddy  set  vp  and  approved, 
without  the  concent  and  approbaccon  of  the  Government,  or 
shall  continew  any  otherwise  set  vp  without  concent  as  aforesaid, 
shalbe  suspended  from  haueing  any  voyce  in  towne  meetings, 
and  presented  to  the  next  generall  Court  to  Receue  such  punish- 
ment as  the  Court  shall  think  meet  to  Inflict.  Whosoeuer  shall 
villifie  by  opprobrious  tearmes  or  speeches  any  church  or  mines- 
try  or  ordinance,  being  heerof  lawfully  convicted,  shall  forfeite 
and  pay  to  the  use  of  the  Colonie  ten  shillings  for  every  default. 

On  October  2,  of  the  same  year,  1650,  the  year  be- 
fore Holmes  received  his  "  thirty  strokes  "  in  Boston, 
he  with  eight  others  of  the  town  of  Rehoboth  (John 
Hazell,  Edward  Smith  and  wife,  Joseph  Tory  and  wife, 
William  Deuell  and  wife,  and  the  wife  of  James  Mann), 
was  again  presented  "  for  the  continewing  of  a  meeting 
vppon  the  Lord's  day  from  house  to  house,  contrary  to 
the  order  of  this  Court  enacted  June  the  12th,  1650." 
No  sentence  against  them  is  found  in  the  Court 
Records,  and  probably  they  were  only  threatened  with 
a  fine.  "  How  different  is  this,"  says  Backus,  "from 
the  actings  of  Boston  Court  next  year!  "     In  165 1  the 


132  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

Court  re-enacted  substantially  the  foregoing  law,  with 
an  added  penalty  : 

Whatsoeuer  person  or  persons  shall  neglect  the  frequenting 
the  pubHcke  uoishipp  of  (iod  that  is  according  to  God  in  the 
places  \\  lier  they  Hue  or  doe  assemble  themselues  vpon  any  pre- 
tence whatsoeuer  in  any  way  contrary  to  (jod  and  the  allowance 
of  the  gouerment  tending  to  the  subversion  of  Religion  and 
churches,  or  palpable  prophanacon  of  God's  holy  ordinances, 
being  duely  convicted  shall  pay  ten  shillings  for  euery  such  de- 
fault. If  any  in  any  lazey,  slothful!,  or  prophane  way,  doth 
neglect  to  come  to  the  publicke  worship  of  God,  he  shall  forfeit 
for  euery  such  default  ten  shillings  or  be  publickly  whipte. 

This  is  known  as  the  Thomas  Hinckley  law  ;  and  it 
is  worthy  of  remark  that  in  the  turn  of  events  during 
the  Andros  usurpation,  this  man,  afterward  governor 
of  the  Colony,  and  in  behalf  of  the  Colony,  himself 
preferred  a  petition  to  the  king  "  that  there  be  liberty 
of  conscience  in  matters  of  religion,  .  .  and  that  all 
their  meeting-houses  may  be  left  free  to  them  accord- 
ing to  the  intention  of  the  builders  thereof."  '     Had 

*  In  1657,  the  first  coercive  law  for  the  support  of  ministers  was  en- 
acted, as  follows :  "  Ordered  .  .  .  that  in  whatsoeuer  Township  there  is 
or  shalbee  an  able,  Godly  Teaching  ministry,  which  is  approued  by  this 
(jQuernment,  that  then  four  men  be  Chosen  by  the  inhabitants,  or  Incase 
of  theire  neglect.  Chosen  by  any  three  or  more  of  the  majestrates  to  make 
an  equall  and  just  proportion  vpon  the  estates  of  the  inhabitants  according 
to  theire  abillities,  to  make  vp  such  a  convenient  maintenance  for  his  com- 
fortable attendance  on  his  worke  as  shalbee  agreed  vpon  by  the  church, 
.  .  and  that  distresse  according  as  in  other  just  cases  provided,  bee  made 
vpon  such  as  refuse  to  pay  such  theire  j)roportions,  which  is  in  justice  due. 
But  Incase  there  be  any  other  way  wherby  anv  township  doe  or  shall  Agree 
that  may  effect  the  end  aforesaid,  this  law  not  to  bee  binding  to  them." 
Two  years  previously  the  Court  enacted  that,  "If  there  appears  to  bee  a 
reall  defect  in  the  hearers  of  the  ministers  soe  complaining  [of  a  want  of 
due  maintenance]  the  majestrates  shall  vse  all  gentle  means  to  p'swade 


THE   PILGRIMS  I33 

not  Holmes  and  his  friends  soon  removed  to  Rhode 
Island  we  cannot  tell  what  the  Plymouth  authorities 
would  have  done  with  them.  A  dark  cloud  was  at  that 
time  gathering  over  the  few  Anabaptists  in  the  Colony, 
which  seems  to  have  been  dissipated  only  by  the  fact 
of  their  removal.  That  the  early  Pilgrim  authorities 
were  not  in  favor  of  unlimited  toleration,  and  were  not 
altogether  opposed  to  "suppression,"  is  evident  from  a 
letter  written  to  Governor  Winthrop,  in  1645,  by  Ed- 
ward VVinslow,  who,  speaking  of  an  important  order 
submitted  to  the  legislature  (perhaps  a  petition  of 
William  Vassall  and  others)  says  that  it  would  "  allow 
and  maintaine  full  and  free  toleracon  of  religion  to  all 
men  that  would  preserue  the  civill  peace  and  submit 
unto  government,  and  there  was  no  limitacon  or  excep- 
con  against  Turke,  Jew,  Papist,  Arrian,  Socinian, 
Nicholayton,  familist,  or  any  other,  etc.  .  .  But  the 
governor  [the  tolerant  Bradford]  would  not  suffer  it  to 
come  to  vote,  as  being  that  indeed  would  eate  out  the 
power  of  godliness,"  etc.  Winslow  says  :  "  I  utterly 
abhorred  it  as  such  as  would  make  us  odious  to  all 
Christian  commonweals."^     As   late   as    1674   one   at 


them  to  doe  theire  duty  herein,  but  if  any  of  them  shall  not  heerby  bee 
reclaimed,  but  shall  p'sist  through  plaine  ostinacye  against  an  ordinance  of 
God,  then  it  shalbee  in  the  power  of  the  majestrate  to  vse  such  other 
meanes  as  may  put  them  vpon  theire  duty."  By  a  law  of  1670  two  per- 
sons were  to  be  appointed  in  the  minister's  stead,  to  "  gather  in  the  min- 
nister's  maintenance  by  Inciting  of  the  people  to  theire  duty  in  that  re- 
spect, demanding  it  when  due;  and  if  need  be  by  procuring  distraint,"  etc. 
'  Yet  Winslow  kindly  remembered  Williams  in  his  banishment.  "  It 
pleased  the  Father  of  Spirits,"  writes  Mr.  Williams,  "  to  touch  many  hearts 
dear  to  him  with  some  relentings  ;  amongst  which  that  great  and  pious 
soul,  Mr.  Winslow,  melted,  and  kindly  visited  me  at  Providence,  and  put 
a  piece  of  gold  into  the  hands  of  my  wife  for  our  supply." 

M 


134  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

least  of  the  Plymouth  Colony  ministers,  Rev.  Samuel 
Arnold,  of  Marshfield,  was  capable  of  giving  sound 
orthodox  and  Puritan  advice  touching  this  business  of 
suppression.  In  an  election  sermon  he  said  :  "  When 
persons  err  in  fundamentals,  deny  Christ,  the  word  of 
God,  eternal  election,  etc.,  such  persons  and  heretics 
had  need  be  suppressed."  This  is  really  but  an  echo 
of  the  Court  in  1671,  that 

if  any  really  or  in  pretence  of  conscience  shall  profess  that 
which  eminently  tendeth  to  the  inundation  of  civil  state  and 
violating  of  natural  bonds,  or  the  overthrow  of  the  churches  of 
God,  or  of  his  worship,  that  herein  prudence  is  to  be  improved 
in  a  special  manner  in  the  enactment  and  execution  of  such  laws 
as  may  be  useful  for  the  upholding  of  the  same  against  such  de- 
structive errors. 

Some  time  prior  to  this  last  date  the  penalty  attached 
to  the  Thomas  Hinckley  law  must  apparently  have  been 
augmented,  for  on  July  2,  1667, 

Mr.  Miles  and  Mr.  [James]  Browne,  for  theire  breach  of  order 
in  seting  vp  a  publicke  meeting  without  the  knowlidge  and  ap- 
probation of  the  Court,  to  the  disturbance  of  the  peace  of  the 
place,  are  fined  each  of  them  the  summe  of  fiue  pounds,  and 
Mr.  Tanner  the  summe  of  twenty  shillings.  And  wee  judge  that 
theire  continuance  att  Rehoboth,  being  very  prejudiciall  to  the 
peace  of  that  church  and  that  towne,  may  not  be  alowed,  and 
doe  therefore  order  all  persons  concerned  therein  wholly  to  desist 
from  the  said  meeting  in  that  place  or  township  within  this 
month  ;  yett  incase  they  shall  remoue  theire  meeting  vnto  some 
other  place  where  they  may  not  prejudice  any  other  church,  and 
shall  giue  vs  any  reasonable  satisfaction  respecting  theire  prin- 
ciples, wee  know  not  but  they  may  be  permitted  by  this  gouern- 
ment  soe  to  doe. 

In  the  follovvino-  October  the  Court  made  to  them 


THE   PILGRIMS  1 35 

and  others  an  ample  grant  of  land,  which  they  called 
Swanzey  (from  Swansea  in  Wales),  a  blending  here 
surely  of  mercy  with  judgment. 

But  Baptists  sprang  up  again  in  Rehoboth,  and  in 
1 710  Elder  Ephraim  Wheaton,  the  friend  and  corre- 
spondent of  Thomas  Hollis,  with  many  others,  peti- 
tioned the  General  Court  to  be  relieved  from  the  pay- 
ment of  ministerial  rates.  This  relief,  however,  does 
not  seem  to  have  been  granted,  for  in  1728-29  twenty- 
eight  Baptists,  two  Quakers,  and  two  Episcopalians, 
who  lived  within  the  bounds  of  Rehoboth,  were  im- 
prisoned at  Bristol  for  refusing  to  pay  these  taxes.  A 
manuscript  account  of  their  imprisonment,  which  lies 
before  me,  states  that  they  were  "  carried  from  their 
families  to  a  nauseous  apartments  in  Bristol  Gaol,  and 
there  confined  twelve  days,  during  which  time  they  re- 
ceived the  most  unkind  and  unchristian  treatment ; 
altho  some  of  them  was  weak  and  sickly."  This  speci- 
men of  barbarism,  however,  did  not  occur  under  spe- 
cifically Pilgrim  rule.' 

■■■  We  here  give  a  few  extracts  from  a  sweet  evangelical  letter  sent  by- 
Mr.  Hollis  to  Elder  Wheaton,  in  1723,  the  whole  being  found  in  Backus' 
"  History,"  Vol.  I.,  509.  Among  other  things  Mr.  Hollis  says  :  "  I  mourn 
because  of  the  ignorance  of  your  sleeping  Sabbatarians.  .  .  Let  no  man 
rob  us  of  our  comfortable  hope  that  when  we  cease  to  be  here  we  shall 
be  present  with  the  Lord,  in  whose  presence  the  saints  believe  is  fullness 
of  joy  in  a  separate  state,  and  expectation  of  greater  in  the  resurrection." 
He  (who  in  this  letter  declares  himself  to  be  "a  Baptist")  closes  his 
epistle  by  saying  :  "  Where  the  image  of  Christ  is  formed  in  any,  I  call 
them  the  excellent  of  the  earth ;  with  such  I  delight  to  associate  and 
worship,  whatever  particular  denomination  they  may  go  by  among  men  ; 
and  this  I  would  do  till  we  all  come  into  the  unity  of  the  faith,"  etc. 
Thomas  Hollis,  Esq.,  was  a  member  of  an  independent  church.  Mr. 
Wheaton  often  received  books  and  other  benefactions  from  his  English 
friend.     The  like  also  is  true  of  Mr.  Callender,  of  Boston. 


136  NEW  RXGLAND'S   struggles 

I^'rom  this  whole  account  our  conchision  is,  that 
while  the  Pilgrims  had  no  very  kindly  feelings  toward 
the  Anabaptists,  they  yet  cannot  be  called  bitter  or 
greatly  active  persecutors  of  them  ;  but  they  began  to 
persecute  mildly.  They  were,  as  concerns  the  Baptists, 
incipient,  but  mild  persecutors. 

But  what  about  the  relation  of  the  Pilgrims  to  those 
"notorious  hereticks,"  the  Quakers.^  As  we  might 
have  expected,  the  Puritans  of  the  Bay  took  the  initia- 
tive in  the  matter  of  Quaker  persecution  in  the  Pilgrim 
Colony.  In  September,  1656,  the  commissioners  of 
the  four  united  Colonies,  meeting  at  "  New  Plimouth," 
received  a  message  from  the  "Gouernor  and  majes- 
trates  of  the  Massachusetts,"  stating  that  "  hear  hath 
arrived  amongst  us  seueral  persons  professing  them- 
selves quakers,  fitt  instruments  to  propagate  the  king- 
dome  of  Sathan  ;  for  the  Securing  of  ourselues  and  our 
Naighbours  from  such  pests  wee  haue  Imprisoned 
them  till  they  bee  despatched  away  to  the  place  from 
whence  they  came."  They  then  request  the  commis- 
sioners, doubtless  for  the  special  benefit  of  the  Plym- 
outh jurisdiction,  that  '•'  some  generall  rules  may  bee 
alsoe  comended  to  each  Generall  Court  to  prevent  the 
coming  in  amongst  us  from  foraigne  places  such  No- 
torious heretiques  as  quakers.  Ranters,"  etc.  A  month 
after  this  the  Massachusetts  Court  passed  their  first 
law  against  this  "cursed  sect."  And  in  the  years  im- 
mediately following  they  passed  still  other  laws,  several 
of  which  for  their  barbarity  can  hardly  be  excelled. 
And  it  is  not  uncharitable  to  suppose  that  they  would 
like  to  have  the  Plymouth  Pilgrims  inflict  like  barbar- 
ous tortures  on  the  turbulent  and   contemptuous  Qua- 


THE   PILGRIMS  137 

kers.  And  in  this  instance  the  Pilgrims  proved  pretty- 
apt  scholars,  and  quickly  began  to  imitate,  in  a  meas- 
ure, the  Puritan  example — their  first  law  against  the 
Quakers  having  been  passed,  June,  1657,  less  than  a 
year  after  the  Puritans  passed  theirs.  The  Pilgrims, 
unlike  the  Puritans,  did  not  make  Quakerism  a  capital 
offense.  The  banishment  they  inflicted  was  not  upon 
pain  of  death.  They  did  not  torture  and  mutilate,  as 
did  the  Puritans.  They  did  not  apply  the  lash  to  the 
naked  backs  of  obstinate  Quakers  tied  to  a  "  carts 
tayle."  But  they  did  sentence  them  to  be  imprisoned, 
to  be  put  into  the  stocks,  to  be  "laid  neck  and  heels," 
to  be  publicly  whipped,  to  be  disfranchised,  to  be  ban- 
ished, and  their  goods,  books,  horses,  etc.,  to  be  seized. 
And  those  who  ventured  to  harbor,  aid,  or  encourage 
them  in  any  way  fared  but  little  better. 

In  the  writer's  native  town,  Scituate,  to  which  fre- 
quent reference  has  been  made,  a  town  noted  above  all 
others  for  its  freedom  of  religious  thought  and  practice 
in  early  times,  lived  two  prominent  laymen  who  were 
champions  of  religious  liberty,  Timothy  Hatherly  and 
General  James  Cudworth;  the  latter  being,  as  it  is 
supposed,  brother  of  the  renowned  English  Platon- 
ist,  Ralph  Cudworth,  author  of  the  "  True  Intellectual 
System  of  the  Universe."  Both  these  gentlemen  held 
high  offices  in  the  government  till  they  fell,  in  1658, 
under  the  displeasure  of  the  stern  Governor  Thomas 
Prince, — who  was  "a  terror  to  the  wicked," — and  were 
disfranchised  for  their  opposition  to  the  persecution  of 
the  Quakers.^    In  a  letter  written  by  General  Cudworth, 

'  Isaac,  son  of  Rev.  John  Robinson,  who  lived  for  a  time  in  the  above- 
named  town,  anti  was  an  assistant  in  the  government,  was  likewise  dis- 


138  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

in  1658,  to  a  former  magistrate  (at  that  time  in  Eng- 
land), in  regard  to  these  times,  he  says  : 

As  to  the  state  and  condition  of  things  among  us,  it  is  sad  and 
so  like  to  continue.  The  anti-Christian  persecuting  spirit  is  very 
active,  and  that  in  the  powers  of  this  world.  He  that  will  not 
lash,  persecute,  and  punish  men  that  differ  in  matters  of  religion 
must  not  sit  on  the  bench,  nor  sustain  any  office  in  the  Common- 
wealth. Last  election  Mr.  Hatherly  and  myself  were  left  off  the 
bench  and  myself  discharged  of  my  captaincy,  because  I  had 
entertained  some  of  the  Quakers  [John  Copeland  and  William 
Brend]  at  my  house,  thereby  that  I  might  be  the  better  ac- 
quainted with  their  principles.  I  thought  it  better  to  do  so 
than,  with  the  blind  world,  to  censure,  condemn,  rail  at,  and 
revile  them  when  they  neither  saw  their  persons  nor  knew  any 
of  their  principles.  But  the  Quakers  and  myself  cannot  close 
in  divers  things  ;  and  so  I  signified  to  the  Court  I  was  no 
Quaker,  but  must  give  my  testimony  against  sundry  things  that 
they  held  as  I  had  occasion  and  opportunity.  But  withal  I  told 
them  that  as  I  was  no  Quaker,  so  I  would  be  no  persecutor. 

And  then  he  goes  on  to  acquaint  his  friend 

a  little  with  their  sufferings,  which  is  grievous,  and  saddens 
the  hearts  of  most  of  the  precious  saints  of  God  ;  it  lies  down 
and  rises  up  with  them,  and  they  cannot  put  it  out  of  their 
minds,  .  .  Truly  it  moves  bowels  of  compassion  in  all  sorts 
except  those  in  place  who  carry  it  with  a  high  hand  towards 
them.  Through  mercy  we  have  yet  among  us  the  worthy  Mr. 
Dunster,  whom  the  Lord  hath  made  boldly  to  bear  testimony 
against  the  spirit  of  persecution. 

This  last  statement  is  not  contradictory  to  the  as- 
sertion of  Secretary  Morton,  that  Mr.  Dtmster  "  was 


franchised  because  of  his  opposing  Quaker  persecution,  having  become 
almost  a  Quaker  himself  in  his  endeavors  to  convert  others.  He  was, 
however,  afterward  restored  to  favor. 


THE   PILGRIMS  139 

useful  in  helping  to  oppose  the  abominable  opinions 
of  the  Quakers,  and  in  defending  the  truth  against 
them."  But  it  does  contradict  and  effectually  annul 
the  statement  made  in  Francis  Baylies'  "  History  of 
Plymouth  Colony,"  that  Mr.  Dunster  was  "violent  and 
intolerant,"  and  that  his  "dislike  and  hatred  of  the 
Quakers  was  unrelenting  and  vindictive,"  a  statement 
which  I  have  never  seen  made  elsewhere,  and  for  which 
there  is  no  ground  whatever.  The  historian,  Dr.  George 
E.  Ellis,  who  cannot  be  supposed  to  have  any  special 
sympathy  for  Mr.  Dunster's  religious  views,  speaks  of 
him  far  more  truly  as  "  one  of  the  most  engaging,  lov- 
able, and  most  eminently  serviceable  men  in  our  earliest 
Annals."  And  President  Josiah  Quincy,  in  his  "  His- 
tory of  Harvard  University,"  bears  witness  that  "Dun- 
ster possessed  a  gentle  heart  and  a  noble  vein  of  Chris- 
tian charity." 

We  may  here  state  that  the  penalty  in  Plymouth 
Colony  for  entertaining  Quakers,  as  Mr.  Cudworth  had 
done,  was  "  five  pounds  for  every  such  default  or  be 
whipped."  Young  Copeland,  one  of  the  Quakers 
whom  he  entertained  for  a  night  or  two,  received  in 
Boston  thirty  strokes  with  a  knotted  whip  of  three 
cords,  and  had  his  right  ear  cut  off  in  the  prison.  Pre- 
viously, though  in  the  same  year,  1658,  he  had  been 
whipped  in  Plymouth  and  Barnstable.  Brend,  his  com- 
panion, fared  still  worse.  We  here  quote  mainly  from 
Sewel's  large  "  History,"  and  from  the  "  Historical  Me- 
moirs of  the  Society  of  Friends,"  by  William  Hodg- 
son, published  by  J.  B.  Lippincott  &  Co.  Detained  in 
Boston  prison  in  order  to  pay  his  fees,  he  yet  refused 
to  work,  "  not  feeling  at  liberty  with  a  clear  conscience 


140  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

to  pay."  For  not  working  the  jailer  first  gave  him 
twenty  blows  with  a  three-corded  whip,  and  afterward 
put  him  into  irons,  placing  a  fetter  on  each  leg,  and 
one  round  his  neck,  and  drawing  them  wdth  force  to- 
gether, "neck  and  heels,"  and  then  left  the  aged  man 
locked  in  this  suffering  position  sixteen  hours.  Still 
refusing  to  work,  the  jailer  took  a  piece  of  inch  rope 
and  beat  him  with  all  his  strength,  till,  after  striking 
about  twenty  blows,  the  rope  began  to  untwist.  After- 
ward, he  produced  a  much  stronger  rope  and  continued 
to  beat  him  therewith  until  he  had  given  ninety-one 
blows,  and  his  own  strength  was  exhausted.  This  "  \V. 
Brend,"  said  John  Norton,  "  endeavoured  to  beat  our 
Gospel  ordinances  black  and  blue,  and  it  is  but  just 
upon  him  if  he  is  beaten  black  and  blue  also."  And 
the  poor  sufferer's  back  was  beaten  till  it  seemed  almost 
like  a  jelly,  and  having  moreover  been  five  days  with- 
out food,  he  at  length  sunk  down  and  seemed  to  be 
dying.  Lest  the  bloody  transaction  would  look  too 
much  like  murder,  the  rulers  sought  by  every  means  to 
revive  him,  and  even  the  governor  sent  him  a  physician. 
And  strange  to  say,  he  was  favored  with  a  rapid  re- 
covery. Like  his  companion,  he  also  received  a  whip- 
ping in  Plymouth,  and  was  finally  banished  upon  ])ain 
of  death.  Among  the  whippings  performed  in  Plym- 
outh this  same  year,  1658,  was  that  of  Humphrey  Nor- 
ton, who  almost  deserved  his  twenty-three  lashes  for 
his  insolence  to  Governor  Prince,  telling  him  at  sundry 
times:  Tlion  licst !  Thomas^  thou  art  a  vialicious  vian, 
etc.  He  afterward  sent  the  governor  a  scurrilous  let- 
ter, a  part  of  which  is  printed  in  Backus'  "  History," 
Vol.  I.,  256;  also  a  similar  letter  to  John  Alden.      In 


THE    PILGRIMvS  141 

New  Haven  he  had  the  letter  H  deeply  burned  in  his 
hand,  "  the  only  instance  of  branding  [of  Quakers  ?] 
in  New  England,"  (Ellis).  Indeed,  as  compared  with 
the  mother  country,  the  Puritan  Colony  was  lenient  in 
respect  to  capital  offenses  and  penal  inflictions.' 

Under  a  new  governor,  Mr.  Cudworth,  after  fifteen 
years  had  elapsed,  was  restored  to  favor,  and  was  ap- 
pointed "  Ginnirall"  in  King  Philip's  war,  while  Mr. 
Hatherly,  "  the  principal  founder  and  father  of  the 
town  of  Scituate,"  who  served  as  the  Governor's  As- 
sistant thirteen  years,  as  commissioner  of  the  United 
Colonies  three  years,  as  treasurer  of  the  Colony  also, 
and  who  was  the  equal  of  any  that  ever  occupied  the 
colonial  governor's  chair,  was  suffered  to  remain  in  re- 
tirement. The  above  quoted  utterances  of  Mr.  Cud- 
worth,  must  not  be  regarded  as  the  prejudiced  testi- 
mony of  a  man  soured  by  disappointment.  In  sub- 
sequently declining  a  certain  office,  he  says  :  "  I  do  not 
in  the  least  waive  the  business  out  of  any  discontent 
in  my  spirit  arising  from  any  former  difference  ;  for  the 
thought  of  all  which  is  and  shall  be  forever  buried  so 
as  not  to  come  to  remembrance."  The  historian  of 
Scituate  ,  Rev.  Samuel  Deane,  remarks  that  "  his  mag- 
nanimity has  rarely  been  equaled,  and  when  we  couple 
with  it  the  mildness  and  humanity  of  his  demeanor,  his 
character  reaches  the  sublime." 

1  See  J.  H.  Trumbull's  "Blue  Laws,  True  and  False,"  of  Connecticut 
and  New  Haven  Colonies,  pp.  10-23;  also  Palfrey's  "History  of  New 
England,"  Vol.  II.,  26-29.  Mr.  Palfrey  states  that  there  were  in  Eng- 
land thirty-one  capital  crimes  at  the  end  of  Queen  Elizabeth's  reign,  and 
that  subsequently,  at  one  time,  their  number  was  estimated  at  two  hun- 
dred and  twenty-three.  Plymouth  Colony  in  early  times  had  but  eight 
capital  offenses,  and  Massachusetts  but  eleven. 


142  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

As  a  slight  apology  for  the  Pilgrims  in  their  perse- 
cution of  the  Quakers  we  may  say,  in  the  words  of  the 
last-named  author,  and  as  the  result  of  what  we  have 
already  seen,  that  "  The  General  Court  of  Massachu- 
setts communicated  to  Plymouth  Colony  the  first  im- 
pulse of  opposition  to  this  sect."  In  the  Puritan  Col- 
ony the  leading  Quakers  were  confessedly  turbulent, 
fanatical,  indecent,  and  we  wonder  not  that  under  a 
theocratic  government  the  Puritan  magistrates  and 
ministers  thought  that  the  actions  and  principles  of 
this  sect  "  tended  to  undermine  the  authority  of  civill 
gouernment  as  also  to  destroy  the  authority  of  the 
churches."  In  the  Plymouth  jurisdiction  the  Quakers 
were  less  turbulent  and  fanatical,'  yet  they  could  not  be 
regarded  as  desirable  neighbors  or  good  citizens,     Roger 

*  There  are  of  course  exceptions  to  this  statement.  From  Increase 
Mather  (see  also  "  Magnalia,"  Lib.  IL,  458)  we  learn  that  "  a  man,  pass- 
ing under  the  name  of  Jonathan  Dunen  (Dunham),  a  singing  Quaker, 
drew  away  the  wife  of  one  in  Marshfield,  to  follow  him  ;  also  one  Mary 
Ross,  falling  into  their  company,  was  quickly  possessed  with  the  devil, 
playing  such  frentick  and  diabolical  tricks  as  the  like  hath  seldom  been 
known  or  heard  of;  for  she  made  herself  naked,  burning  all  her  clothes, 
and  with  infinite  blasphemy,  said  she  was  Christ,  and  gave  names  to  her 
apostles,  calling  Dunen  by  the  name  of  Peter,  another  by  the  name  of 
Thomas  ;  declaring  that  she  would  be  dead  for  three  dayes,  and  then  rise 
again  ;  and  accordingly  seemed  to  die.  And  while  she  was  pretendedly 
dead,  her  apostle,  Dunen,  gave  out  that  they  should  see  glorious  things 
after  her  resurrection  ;  but  that  which  she  then  did  was  she  commanded 
Dunen  to  sacrifice  a  dog.  The  man  and  the  two  women  danced  naked 
together,  having  nothing  liut  their  shirts  on.  The  constable  brought  them 
before  the  magistrates  in  Plymouth,  where  Ross  uttered  such  prodigious 
blasphemy  as  is  not  fit  to  be  mentioned  ''  (quoted  by  Dr.  Dexter).  The 
man  was  "  centanced  to  be  publicly  whipt  att  the  post,"  and  ordered  out 
of  the  jurisdiction,  and  was  further  condemned  to  be  "  soe  serued  as  oft 
as  he  shall  vnnecessarily  rcturne  into  it  to  disseminate  his  corrupt  prin- 
ciples." 


THE   PILGRIMS  143 

Williams  talked  as  hard  against  the  Quakers  as  did  any 
of  the  Puritans.  What  the  Pilgrims  would  have  done 
with  them,  if  left  to  themselves,  we  can  hardly  conjec- 
ture. Both  Puritan  and  Pilgrim  necessarily  partook  of  the 
stern  spirit  of  their  age,  in  the  severity  and  frequency 
of  their  punishments.^  It  must  not,  of  course,  be 
understood  that  the  corporal  punishments  we  have 
named  were  confined  merely  to  Baptists  and  Quakers, 
or  to  matters  of  religious  faith  and  practice.  They 
were  visited  upon  many  offenses  of  widely  different 
kinds.  Whippings,  especially,  as  a  legal  penalty  for 
adult  transgressors  seem  to  have  been  as  common  in 
those  times  as  they  were  inside  the  schoolhouses  of 
our — let  us  rather  say — ^our  fathers'  childhood. 

One  thing  must  be  confessed  to  the  everlasting  honor 
both  of  Puritan  and  Pilgrim,  that  however  many  and 
grievous  their  mistakes,  they  were  yet  in  their  prin- 
ciples and  conduct  thoroughly  earnest,  honest,  and  con- 
scientious. And  I  feel  that  if  we  could  put  ourselves 
in  their  place,  and  could  understand  all  the  difficulties 
they  had  to  encounter,  we  should  sympathize  with 
them  far  more  deeply  than  we  do,  and  be  better  en- 
abled to  do  them  justice.  How  unfair,  for  example, 
and  how  ridiculous,  to  reproach  the  Puritans  for  the 
poverty  of  their  literature,  especially  as  contrasted  with 
the  immortal  writings  produced  in  the  mother  country 
during  the  same  period — engaged  as  they  were  for  so 

'  If  one  wishes  to  see  how  much  the  Baptists  and  Quakers  suffered  in 
England,  vastly  more  than  in  this  country,  we  refer  him  to  a  brief  state- 
ment in  Dr.  Dexter's  "As  to  Roger  Williams,"  pp.  123-4,  ^37-  See 
also,  as  concerns  the  Baptists  and  other  dissenters,  Crosby's  "  History  of 
the  English  Baptists,"  Vol.  II.,  and  Ivimey's  "History,"  Vol.  I.,  and  as 
concerns  the  Quakers,  see  Sewel's  "  History,"  Vol.  II. 


144  NEW  England's  vSTruggles 

long  a  time  in  subcUiing  a  wilderness,  rugged  in  soil, 
severe  in  climate,  infested  witti  wild  beasts  and  savage 
men,  often  engaged  in  bloody  and  expensive  wars,  and 
living  too,  without  the  conveniences  of  money  and 
other  things  as  we  have  them,  so  that  no  little  part  of 
their  time  was  occupied  in  keeping  the  wolf,  both  the 
literal  and  the  metaphorical,  from  their  doors.  Jkit 
apart  from  all  consideration  of  their  physical  surround- 
ings, which,  of  course,  were  not  conducive  to  the  cul- 
tivation of  belles-lettres,  it  seems  to  me  that  their  ear- 
nestness of  moral  purpose  was  alone  sufficient  to  de- 
termine the  character  and  extent  of  their  literary  pur- 
suits, whatever  may  have  been  their  literary  tastes. 
They  felt,  I  doubt  not,  that  there  was  something  more 
important  for  them  to  do  in  this  world  than  to  devote 
their  intellectual  energies  to  the  production  of  the 
lighter,  or,  what  we  deem,  the  more  pleasing  kinds  of 
literature.  It  is  a  conceded  fact  that  many  ot  our 
Puritan  fathers  ranked  among  the  most  eminent  schol- 
ars of  their  time ;  and  it  was  in  the  interest  of  learning 
and  of  culture  that  soon  after  their  arrival,  in  1636, 
they  founded  a  college  in  this  wilderness — an  example, 
I  venture  to  say,  whose  like  has  not  a  parallel  in  the 
history  of  the  world.  And  yet  it  was  in  this  same  seat 
of  learning  that  a  historian  in  his  recent  lectures  ex- 
hibited not  a  little  of  this  unfairness  of  which  I  have 
spoken.' 

It  is  also  my  conviction  that  justice  cannot  be  done 
them  by  those  who,  like  many  of  our  "  liberal  "  his- 
torians, have  no  special  sympathy  with  their  religious 


'See   "Massachusetts,   its   Historians  and  its    History,"    by  Charles 
Francis  Adams. 


THE    PILGRIMS  145 

views  and  aims.  And  yet  I  cannot  conceive  how  any 
person  can  fail  to  have  very  great  respect  for  their 
sincerity  of  purpose  and  righteousness  of  intent.  In 
contrast  with  the  harsh  and  often  cynical  criticisms 
of  the  Puritans  by  some  recent  historians,  we  gladly 
place  on  record  a  different  estimate  of  their  character 
by  Dr.  Alexander  Young.  In  his  preface  to  his  "  Chron- 
icles of  the  First  Planters  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  he 
says  : 

No  nation  or  State  has  a  nobler  origin  or  lineage  than  Massa- 
chusetts. My  reverence  for  the  character  of  its  founders  con- 
stantly rises  with  the  closer  study  of  their  lives,  and  a  clearer 
insight  into  their  principles  and  motives.  Much  as  has  been 
said  in  commendation  of  them,  their  worth  has  never  been  over- 
rated, and  we  should  never  be  tired  of  recounting  their  virtues.' 

In  pursuing  the  course  of  intolerance  which  they 
did,  they  were  undoubtedly  inconsistent.     It  seems  to 

1  Dr.  Young  was  a  Unitarian  clergyman,  but  one  of  the  older  school. 
The  following  utterances  of  his  in  a  sermon  preached  at  the  ordination  of 
Rev.  George  E.  Ellis,  in  Charlestown,  March  11,  1840  (whose  lainented 
decease  has  occurred  during  this  present  writing),  have  almost  an  ortho- 
dox ring.  He  says  :  "  For  one,  I  must  humbly  acknowledge  that  I  do 
not  feel  the  want  of  a  speculative  philosophy  to  put  underneath  and 
shore  up  my  religion.  I  am  not  ashamed  to  avow  that  my  faith  is  built 
upon  the  foundation  of  the  apostles  and  prophets,  Jesus  Christ  himself 
being  the  chief  cornerstone.  .  .  I  cling  to  revelation.  I  hold  to  the 
record.  Without  the  record  o£  a  supernatural  faith  which  I  find  in  the 
pages  of  the  New  Testament,  I  confess  I  should  feel  like  the  sailor  set 
adrift  on  mid-ocean  without  rudder,  compass,  or  chart — without  his 
quadrant  and  his  '  Practical  Navigator.'  I  turn  to  the  inspired  word  of 
Christ  as  the  needle  seeks  the  pole  star.  .  .  Above  all,  let  Christ  be 
preached  ;  not  the  Christ  of  theory,  of  imagination,  or  of  philosophy,  but 
the  Christ  of  the  New  Testament,  the  Mediator,  the  Redeemer,  the 
Saviour,  the  Son  of  God,  the  Advocate  with  the  Father,  the  Light  of 
the  world.  Let  not  the  Christian  minister  fear  that  he  shall  insist  on  the 
person  or  the  offices  of  Jesus  with  a  noxious  exaggeration,"  etc. 

N 


146  NKW  ENGLAND'vS   vSTRUGGLRvS 

me  also  that  at  times  they  must  have  had  some  doubts 
as  to  the  rightfulness  of  their  severest  penal  inflictions. 
But  I  should  not  care  to  say,  as  a  recent  historian — 
Charles  Francis  Adams,  a  descendant  of  Thomas 
Shepard,  of  Cambridge — has  said,  that  "they  knew 
better.  "  It  is  quite  enough  to  say  that  they  ought  to 
have  known  better,  those  at  least  of  them  who  had 
suffered  from  oppression  in  the  Old  World,  and  who 
in  consequence  knew  the  worth  of  personal  religious 
freedom.  It  must  be  remembered  of  the  Puritans  that 
theirs  was  no  easy-going,  careless  faith  or  no  faith. 
With  them  religious  error  was  soul-destroying,  and 
hence  infinitely  more  to  be  dreaded  than  the  plague. 
"  Doubtless,"  said  one  of  the  Puritan  ministers, 
"doubtless  they  that  are  nursing  fathers  of  their  peo- 
ple ought  as  well  to  prevent  poison  as  to  provide  food 
for  them."  They  had  intense  convictions  of  the  un- 
speakable importance  of  religious  truth  and  of  their 
own  religious  faith.  And  their  whole  aim  was  to  set 
up  in  their  little  corner  of  New  England — "  sequestered 
from  the  rest  of  the  world,"  and,  as  Urian  Oakes  and 
John  Higginson  said,  "  originally  a  plantation  not  for 
trade  but  for  religion" — God's  way  and  worship  in 
purity.  They  aimed  to  exhibit  to  the  world  "  a  speci- 
men or  a  little  model  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ  on 
earth."  And  they  knew  no  better  way  in  which  to 
establish  and  conserve  orthodoxy  in  church  and  right- 
eousness in  State,  in  their  little  Church  and  State 
home,  than  to  keep  out,  and,  as  their  charter  worded 
it,  "  repulse,  repell,"  and  exclude  even  by  force,  here- 
tics and  other  persons  whose  influence  they  deemed 
destructive  of  their  Church  and  State  community,  and 


THE    PILGRIMS  147 

who,  as  they  felt,  had  no  right  to  intrude  themselves 
into  their  community.  If  ever  a  people  on  earth  were 
conscientious,  they  were  that  people  ;  but  to  say  that 
"  they  knew  better,"  is  to  say  that  they  deliberately 
acted  against  their  consciences.  But  this  is  to  deny 
them  all  claims  to  greatness  or  goodness.  Yet  "  these 
men,"  as  Dr.  Jeremiah  Chaplin,  in  his  "  Life  of  Presi- 
dent Dunster,"  well  remarks,  "were  so  truly  great  and 
good  that,  better  than  most  men,  they  can  bear  the 
exposure  which  historic  justice  necessitates."  Nor 
must  we  forget  the  profound  truth  of  Froude's  asser- 
tion concerning  Sir  Thomas  More,  that,  "  The  spirit  of 
persecution  is  no  peculiar  attribute  of  the  pedant,  the 
bigot,  or  the  fanatic,  but  may  coexist  with  the  fairest 
graces  of  the  human  character," 


PART  in 

SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES  AND  FINAL 
TRIUMPH 

Divine  truth  is  immortal  ;  it  may  perhaps  for  long  be  bound, 
scourged,  crowned,  crucified,  and  for  a  season  be  entombed  in 
the  grave,  but  on  the  third  day  it  shall  rise  again  victorious, 
and  rule  and  triumph  forever. — Hiiluiiaier,  an  A7iahaptist  Diartvr, 
152S. 

Planting  himself  at  the  period  of  the  Confession  of  the  seven 
churches  of  Christ  in  London  (1643),  ^^^  Baptist  historian,  as  he 
looks  down  the  line  of  coming  years,  beholds  struggles  which 
might  appall  the  stoutest  heart,  and,  at  the  same  time,  triumphs 
which,  had  they  been  uttered  in  prophecy,  would  have  been 
scarcely  less  wonderful  than  those  ancient  ones  in  which  the 
seers  of  the  Captivity  proclaimed  the  return  to  Zion. — 6'.  S. 
Cuttings  "Historical  Vindications,''  p.  4J . 

In  1692  the  Plymouth  Colony  was  merged  into  that 
of  Massachusetts,  and  thenceforward  the  governors  of 
the  consolidated  Colony,  or  "  Province,"  were  appointed 
by  the  British  Crown.  By  these  acts,  and  by  the 
doing  away  of  any  church-membership  qualification  for 
voting  and  office-holding,  the  Puritan  rule  of  the  Colony 
was  greatly  weakened  for  the  future,  as  in  the  recent 
past  it  had  been  lessened  by  kingly  authority,  and  espe- 
cially by  the  annulling,  in  1684,  of  the  Massachusetts 
charter.  For  a  time,  under  the  Andros  usurpation,  the 
scales  were  completely  turned,  and   Episcopalian   rule 

became  the  order  of  the  day.      He  carried  the  Episco- 
148 


SUBSEQUENT  vSTRUGCxLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      149 

palian  worship  even  into  the  Old  South  meeting-house, 
and  "  threatened  to  shut  up  their  doors  if  he  was  re- 
fused ;  and  further  threatened  that  pubHc  worship  in 
the  Congregational  way  should  not  be  tolerated."  And 
when  Dr.  Increase  Mather  arrived  in  London,  in  1688, 
he,  with  others,  petitioned  the  King  "  that  there  might 
be  liberty  of  conscience  in  matters  of  religion,  .  . 
and  that  all  their  meeting-houses  may  be  left  free  to 
them  according  to  the  intention  of  the  builders  thereof." 
The  ingredients  of  the  bitter  chalice  which  they  had 
forced  others  to  take  were  now  commended  to  their 
own  lips. 

But,  though  the  times  in  general  had  greatly  changed, 
the  Puritan  character  and  spirit  long  remained  a  domi- 
nant power  both  in  Church  and  State.  We  might 
have  supposed  that  under  the  new  royal  charter  of 
1 69 1,  which  allowed  equal  liberty  of  conscience  to  all 
Christians  except  Papists,  all  denominations  of  Pro- 
testant Christians  might  at  once  have  been  permitted 
to  enjoy  the  same  liberty.  But  the  very  next  year  the 
Massachusetts  Assembly  enacted  : 

That  every  minister,  being  a  person  of  good  conversation, 
able,  learned,  and  orthodox,  that  shall  be  chosen  by  the  major 
part  of  the  inhabitants  of  any  town  .  .  .  shall  be  the  minister 
of  such  town;  and  the  whole  town  shall  be  obliged  to  pay 
towards  his  settlement  and  maintenance,  each  man  his  several 
proportion  thereof. 

But  Boston,  with  its  different  churches  of  differing 
denominations,  could  not  submit  to  this  law,  and  so 
the  Assembly,  in  1693,  repealed  it,  and  in  its  stead  en- 
acted that  each  respective  gathered  church  in  any 
town  or  place  which   is   in  want  of  a  minister  shall. 


150  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

with  the  concurrence  of  the  majority  of  voters  in  town 
affairs  who  usually  met  therewith  for  worship,  have 
power  to  choose  their  own  minister,  and  every  minister 
thus  obtained  should  be  supported  by  all  the  inhab- 
itants and  ratable  estates  lying  within  such  town  or 
part  of  a  town  or  place,  provided  that  nothing  herein 
contained  shall  "  abridge  the  inhabitants  of  Boston  of 
their  accustomed  way  and  practice  as  to  the  choice  and 
maintenance  of  their  ministers."  "  Thus,"  as  Backus 
says,  "  in  order  to  tax  the  country  to  religious  teach- 
ers, they  were  abridged  of  the  rights  which  Boston 
would  not  part  with."  The  Assembly  still  further  em- 
powered the  ratable  inhabitants  of  any  town  where  no 
church  was  gathered,  to  call  and  settle  a  minister,  by 
the  advice  and  direction  of  three  neighboring  ordained 
ministers,  who  should  be  supported  by  taxation  as 
others  were,  and  that  if  any  town  or  place  neglected 
to  obey  these  laws,  the  town  authorities,  upon  legal 
conviction  of  such  neglect,  be  fined  forty  shillings  for 
the  first  offense,  and  four  pounds  for  every  after  con- 
viction. We  thus  see  .how,  by  the  strong  Puritan  in- 
fluence which  still  survived  in  the  Province  of  Massa- 
chusetts, the  day  of  equal  religious  liberty  for  all  was 
delayed  for  many  generations.  We  now  purpose  to 
notice  some  of  the  more  important  steps  and  influences 
by  which,  after  a  long  and  gigantic  struggle,  religious 
liberty  was  at  length  secured. 

I.    A    SPIRITED    REMONSTRANCE    FROM    THE    BAPTIST.^ 
CHURCHES. 

After  the  oppressive  and  humiliating  exemption  act 
was  passed   in    1753,  and   "the  legislature  at   Boston 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      151 

broke  in  upon  their  own  exemption  law,"  tiie  Baptists, 
as  Backus  further  states, 

were  so  much  alarmed  as  to  call  several  meetings  [in  Med- 
field,  Bellingham,  Boston]  and  to  elect  [at  the  Convention  in 
Bellingham]  Mr.  John  Proctor  their  agent  to  carry  their  case  to 
England;  and  they  subscribed  above  a  hundred  pounds  there- 
for, and  he  drew  a  remonstrance  upon  the  subject  which  was 
presented  to  the  Assembly  in  Boston,  in  May,  1754.  It  stated 
matters  so  plainly  that  a  motion  was  made  by  some  to  take  the 
signers  of  it  into  custody  ;  but  Governor  Shirley,  newly  returned 
from  Europe,  convinced  them  of  the  impolicy  of  such  a  step, 
and  then  they  appointed  a  committee  to  confer  in  a  friendly  way 
with  the  Baptists  ;  and  matters  were  shifted  along  until  the  war 
came  on,  and  their  design  for  England  was  dropped. 

This  Mr.  Proctor,  clerk  of  the  Second  Baptist 
Church,  in  Boston,  was  a  native  and  public  school 
teacher  of  that  town,  in  whose  schoolhouse  the  church 
worshiped  for  a  while.  Our  readers  will  see  that,  in  the 
words  of  the  editor  of  Backus'  "History,"  Prof.  David 
Weston,  this  is  "  a  paper  of  much  merit  and  historic 
value,"  which,  with  other  papers  of  kindred  interest, 
he  greatly  desired  should  be  published.  We  give  it  as 
printed  in  Dr.  Baron  Stow's  Centennial  Sermon  of 
July  27,  1843. 

Memorial  and  Remonstrance. 

To  his  Excellency,  William  Shirley,  Esq.,  Captain-General 
and  Governor-in-Chief  in  and  over  His  Majesty's  Province  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay,  in  New  England,  and  to  [the]  Honorable 
His  Majesty's  Council,  and  the  Honorable  House  of  Representa- 
tives in  General  Court  assembled  in  Boston  the  29th  day  of  May, 
Anno  Domini   1754 — 

The  Memorial  and  Remonstrance  of  Thomas  Green,  Thomas 
Boucher,  Ebenezer  Moulton,  Ephraim  Bosworth,  Joseph  Collins, 


152  NEW  exgland's  struggles 

riiili]-)  Freeman,  josepli  Could,  Thomas  Cheney,  and  John  Proc- 
tor, a  Committee  appointed  in  behalf  of  several  Societies  of  the 
people  called  15aptists,  inhabitants  within  the  said  Province, 
HiDnbly  set  forth. 

That  in  the  Royal  Charter  granted  by  their  majesties,  King 
William  and  Oueen  Mary,  to  the  inhabitants  of  this  Province, 
wherein  your  memorialists  and  all  their  brethren  are  included, 
their  said  Majesties  were  graciously  pleased  to  ordain  that  we 
and  every  of  us,  and  our  children  that  should  be  born  here,  or 
on  the  Seas  in  coming  here,  or  returning  from  hence,  shall  have 
and  enjoy  all  liberties  and  immunities  of  free  natural  subjects,  to 
all  intents,  constructions,  and  purposes  whatsoever,  as  if  we  and 
every  one  of  them  were  born  within  the  realm  of  England.  And 
for  our  further  ease  and  encouragement,  their  said  Majesties,  of 
their  princely  wisdom,  royal  grace,  and  mere  motion,  did  fur- 
ther grant,  establish,  and  ordain  to  us,  under  the  mildest  appella- 
tion of  "  loving  subjects," — our  being  denominated  Anabaptists, 
in  any  wise,  notwithstanding, — that  there  shall  be  liberty  of  con- 
science allowed  in  the  worship  of  God  to  all  Christians,  except 
Papists,  inhabiting  or  which  shall  inhabit  or  be  resident  within 
this  Province  or  Territory.  From  these  Summary  Abstracts, 
may  it  please  your  Excellency  and  Honors,  we  apprehend  it 
plainly  appeareth  that  your  Memorialists,  in  their  said  capacity, 
all  other  his  Majesty's  good  subjects,  of  the  Baptist  persuasion, 
whether  they  be  denominated  by  the  terms  of  General  or  Particu- 
lar Baptists,  learned  or  illiterate,  it  matters  not  in  point  of  the 
Royal  Indulgence  to  them  so  graciously  and  freely  granted,  but 
that  they  and  every  of  them,  his  Majesty's  loyal  and  loving  sub- 
jects, of  the  said  Baptist  Persuasion,  have  as  good,  ample,  and 
extensive  a  right  to  think  and  act  for  themselves,  in  matters  of  a 
religious  nature,  and  have  indeed  as  absolute  and  unlimited  an 
indulgence  to  perform  the  worship  of  Almighty  God,  conso- 
nant to  their  consciences,  and  that  with  impunity,  as  any  or«ll 
and  every  of  the  other  respective  Dissenting  Churches  and  Socie- 
ties, within  this  his  Majesty's  l^rovince  or  Territory,  whomsoever, 
be  they  Congregationalists,  Independents,  Presbyterians,  or 
however  otherwise  denominated. 

These  Points  being  thus  briefly  premised,  in  which  we  pray 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      153 

that  this  Honorable  Court  will  not  look  with  a  severe  eye  on 
your  remonstrants,  in  that  they  insist  upon  and  claim  their  privi- 
leges by  birthright  ;  more  especially  when  it  is  considered  that 
so  long  since,  as  from  the  year  1692  to  the  year  1728,  our  said 
brethren  of  the  Baptist  Persuasion,  inhabitants  of  this  Province, 
have  been  more  or  less  harassed  and  oppressed  with  ministerial 
rates  so  called  ;  and  notwithstanding  the  express  Royal  Indul- 
gence to  them  granted  by  the  Charter  as  before  mentioned, 
have,  with  a  high  hand  and  by  compulsion,  contrary  thereunto, 
been  enforced  to  pay  ministerial  taxes  for  the  maintenance  of 
such  ministers  as  are  in  fact  Dissenters  themselves,  and  upon 
whose  ecclesiastical  administrations  our  said  brethren  could  not, 
in  point  of  conscience,  attend  ;  and  for  their  refusal  to  pay  such 
ministers'  rates,  have  oftentimes  had  their  bodies  seized  upon 
and  thrown  into  the  common  gaol  as  malefactors,  and  their  cat- 
tle, swine,  horses,  household  furniture,  and  implements  of  hus- 
bandry forcibly  distrained  from  them,  and  shamefully  sold,  many 
times  at  not  one-quarter  part  of  the  just  value,  by  reason  that 
people  of  real  virtue  and  goodness  were  generally  disinclined  to 
buy  or  even  bid  at  such  sort  of  coerceive  Outcries,  whereby  the 
estates  of  our  said  brethren  became  a  prey  to  griping  officers 
and  their  attendants,  forasmuch  as,  generally  speaking,  the  bill  of 
charges  brought  by  the  distraining  officer,  for  himself  and  his  as- 
sistants, would  be  so  swelled,  inclusive  of  the  ministerial  rate,  as 
nearly  to  counterbalance  the  several  articles  distrained  from  our 
brethren  aforesaid. 

It  is  with  regret  that  we  find  ourselves  compelled  to  look  back 
so  many  years  past  on  the  repeated  usurpations  over  the  bodies 
and  estates  of  our  said  brethren  ;  but  however  disagreeable  the 
retrospect  may  be,  it  is,  indeed,  we  think,  at  this  juncture  be- 
come quite  necessary  (as  perhaps  may  appear  in  the  sequel),  in 
order  the  more  clearly  to  convey  a  just  conception  of  our  griev- 
ances to  your  Excellency  and  Honors,  to  unfold  things  as  they 
really  existed,  inasmuch  as  from  the  like  injurious  fountain  of 
ministerial  assessment,  our  present  oppressions  derive  their  ori- 
gin. With  all  due  deference,  therefore,  your  memorialists  pro- 
ceed further  to  observe  that  the  heavy  pressures  and  afflictions 
occasioned  by  the  aforesaid  distraints,  imprisonments,  and  the 


154  ^"Rw  England's  .sTRT'GrTLE;s 

losses  consequent  thereupon,  for  ministerial  taxes,  made  many 
of  the  said  Baptists  bend,  ahiiost  ruined  some  of  our  people,  and 
disheartened  others  to  such  a  degree,  that  they  moved,  with  the 
remaining  effects  they  had  left,  out  of  this  Province. 

We  have  herein,  in  the  abovementioned  state  of  our  case, 
been  briefly  (and  in  one  general  view  pointing  from  the  year 
1692)  down  to  the  year  1728,  at  which  last  mentioned  time,  af- 
fairs seemed  to  be  drawing  to  a  crisis.  Ministerial  taxes  were 
drove  with  vehemence  through  the  Province  (excepting  the  town 
of  Boston  and  some  other  towns),  even  Episcopalians,  as  well  as 
Baptists  and  Quakers,  were  indiscriminately  laid  hold  on,  and 
some  imprisoned  for  ministers'  rates.  Four  of  our  friends  and 
brethren  about  this  time  were  brought  down  out  of  the  country 
and  thrown  into  the  Boston  gaol,  which  when  Lieut.  Governor 
Dummer,  who  was  then  at  the  head  of  the  government,  had  in- 
formation of,  he  expressed  a  singular  displeasure  at  such  harsh 
proceedings,  and  forthwith  ordered  tliem  out  of  prison,  with  free 
liberty  to  return  home  to  their  respective  families.  Our  friends 
and  neighbors,  the  said  people  called  Quakers,  being  no  longer 
able  to  endure  these  continued  impositions  and  severities,  by 
their  respective  memorials  made  application  once  and  again  to 
the  General  'Court  for  relief,'  which  at  length,  after  considerable 
cost  and  charge  to  the  memorialists,  produced  the  first  act  of 
Exemption,  so  called,  entitled,  "An  act  to  exempt  persons  com- 
monly called  Anabaptists  and  those  called  Quakers,  within  this 
Province,  from  being  taxed  for  and  towards  the  support  of  minis- 
ters."  This  was  in  the  first  and  second  years  of  his  present 
Majesty's  reign  ;  but  as  this  act  only  exempted  their  polls  and 
not  their  estates,  and  being  remarkably  limited  to  such  persons 
only  as  lived  within  five  miles  of  the  place  of  meeting,  it  was 
bantered  and  laughed  at,  even  by  some  of  the  principal  gentle- 
men of  the  then  General  Assemblv,  and  called  in  derision,  "the 


'  Add  :  pnd  our  said  brethren,  the  Baptists. 

'  A  petition  of  certain  Quakers  to  the  General  Court  in  1720,  repre- 
sents "  that  the  said  people  for  years  past  had  suffered  the  distraint  and 
loss  of  their  goods  for  the  support  of  the  Presbyterian  or  Independent 
ministers,  and  also  for  the  building  o{  their  meeting-houses,  nnd  that  too 
often  with  much  extortion."'  The  (^)uaker^  in  1706  had  a  meeting-house 
of  their  own  in  Boston. 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH       1 55 

five  mile  act,"  in  allusion  to  the  famous  act  made  in  England 
against  the  Dissenters,  in  the  angry,  persecuting  time  of  Charles 
the  Second.  Both  Baptists  and  Quakers  hereupon  renewed  their 
applications  to  the  General  Court,  determining,  if  they  could  not 
obtain  further  relief  here,  to  carry  home  their  several  complaints 
to  the  King,  where  they  were  well  assured  of  full  redress.  This 
produced  a  second  act,  in  1729,  wherein  the  Baptists  and  Qua- 
kers were  exempted  both  as  to  polls  and  to  estates,  but  clogged, 
however,  with  a  limitation  for  less  than  five  years.  At  the  ex- 
piration of  this  second  act,  which  brings  us  to  the  years  1733 
and  1 734,  our  said  brethren  were  again  obliged  to  apply  to  the 
General  Assembly,  Governor  Belcher  being  then  in  the  Chair, 
and  an  excellent  friend  he  really  was  to  the  Baptists  and  Qua- 
kers through  the  whole  of  his  administration.  Nor  can  we  omit 
in  point  of  gratitude  further  to  declare  in  this  our  memorial,  that 
the  late  mentioned,  and  truly  honorable  Lieut.  Governor  Dum- 
mer,  was  indeed  our  good  friend,  and  quite  averse  to  every- 
thing tending  to  oppress  the  Quakers  and  Baptists. 

In  the  year  1734,  upon  application  again  made  as  aforesaid, 
a  third  act  was  passed  to  exempt  persons  commonly  called  Ana- 
baptists from  ministerial  taxes.  This  third  act  was  more  clear, 
accurate,  and  better  drawn  than  either  of  the  former,  and  therein 
it  is  expressly  set  forth  that  "to  the  intent  it  may  be  better  known 
what  persons  are  of  that  persuasion,  and  who  are  exempted  by 
this  act,  that  the  assessors  of  each  town,  where  any  of  the  said 
Anabaptists  live  or  their  lands  in  their  own  actual  improvement 
lie,  shall  take  a  list  of  all  such  persons  and  forthwith  transmit 
the  same  to  the  clerk  of  the  town,  which  list  shall  be  entered  on 
the  record  of  such  town  by  the  clerk,  that  so  any  of  the  people 
called  Anabaptists  or  any  members  of  their  Society,  thereto  ap- 
pointed, may  view  such  list,  have  a  copy  thereof  if  they  desire 
the  same,  paying  only  six  pence  therefor,  and  if  any  person  of 
that  denomination  shall  be  omitted  in  such  list  by  the  assessors 
taken,  and  the  assessors  shall  be  certified  thereof  in  writing 
under  the  hands  of  two  principal  members  of  that  persuasion, 
appointed  thereto  by  the  respective  Societies,  that  such  persons 
not  inserted  in  their  list  they  believe  to  be  conscientiously  of 
their  persuasion,  and  they  do  frequently  and  usually  attend  their 


156  NEW  ENGLAND'S    STRUGGLES 

meeting  for  the  woisliip  of  (iod  on  the  Lord's  Day,  the  assess- 
ors shall  also  exempt  the  said  persons  so  omitted,  and  their  es- 
tates in  their  actual  management  and  improvement,  as  well  as 
all  others  inserted  in  the  said  list,  from  all  rates  and  taxes  by 
the  said  assessors  to  be  made  for  the  support  of  minister  or  min- 
isters in  their  towns,  or  for  erecting  places  of  public  worship,  this 
act  to  continue  for  five  years,  etc. 

Our  oppressions  on  account  of  ministerial  taxes,  as  aforesaid, 
seemed  now  to  appear  upon  the  decline  ;  yet,  nevertheless,  in 
reality  have,  in  a  considerable  measure,  been  continued  through- 
out every  of  the  said  acts,  by  reason  that,  as  in  the  former,  so 
also  in  the  last  recited  act,  therewas.no  sanction,  no  penalty 
annexed  on  the  said  assessors  for  their  default  of  not  doing  their 
dutv  in  taking  such  lists  of  the  people  called  Anabaptists  in 
their  respective  towns  as  the  act  directed.  And  when  our  said 
brethren  have  at  sometimes  reminded  the  assessors  of  their 
omissions  herein  they  were  generally  snubbed  and  in  a  con- 
temptuous manner  answered,  that  the  assessors  knew  nothing  of 
any  such  act  nor  would  they  concern  themselves  therein.  Other 
assessors,  more  knowing  and  intelligent,  insisted  upon  it  that  as 
there  was  no  penalty  affixed  on  the  non-performance  of  taking 
such  lists  of  the  Anabaptists  in  their  respective  towns,  they  would 
not  trouble  their  heads  about  it.  So  that  in  most  if  not  every 
town  of  this  province  where  our  said  brethren  dwell,  no  such 
lists  as  the  sai^d  act  points  out  were  ever  taken,  or  at  least  that 
we  could  ever  come  to  the  knowledge  of.  Which  omissions,  of 
consequence,  exposed  several  of  our  brethren  to  journeyings, 
some  of  forty  miles,  others  to  a  more  or  less  distance,  in  order 
to  procure  certificates  from  their  respective  Societies  that  they 
were  Baptists.  The  loss  of  time,  travel,  and  expense  from  hence 
occasioned  has  sometime  amounted  to  more  than  the  ministe- 
rial tax.' 

'  Some  assessors  neglected  their  legal  duty  in  another  way  and  for 
other  reasons;  as  it  happened  in  Dartmouth  and  Tiverton.  These 
towns  were  taxed  in  1722-1723,  one  Inuidred  and  seventy-two  pounds 
and  eleven  shillings  for  niiiusterial  rates.  But  the  Quakers,  with  the 
Anabaptists,  constituted  a  majority  in  these  towns,  and  several  of  the 
assessors  were  Quakers.     Of   course,  tliey  could  not  deem  the  Congre- 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH       157 

Upon  the  expiration  of  this  third  act  the  Baptists  were  again 
for  the  fourth  time  exposed  to  the  further  trouble,  cost,  and 
charge  to  apply  to  the  (ieneral  Court  for  a  renewed  exemption, 
which  at  length  produced  a  fourth  act  of  the  like  tenor  and  im- 
port with  the  act  last  before  recited  (which  brings  us  to  the  year 
1740),  and  this  fourth  act  was  enacted  to  be  in  force  for  the 
term  of  seven  years,  during  all  which  time  last  expressed  the 
said  assessors  persisted,  to  the  great  detriment  of  our  said  breth- 
ren, in  their  omissions  as  aforesaid,  this  said  last  act  being  as 
utterly  void  of  any  penalty  on  them  for  their  neglect  as  the 
former 

We  are  now  coming  to  a  more  happy  Epoch,  namely,  to  the 
year  1747,  under  the  mild  and  good  government  of  your  Excel- 
lency. At  the  expiration  of  this  fourth  and  last  act  which  was 
to  end  in  the  said  year  of  1747,  our  said  brethren,  many  of 
them  being  near  worn  out  with  so  many  applications  and  re- 
peated strugglings  to  obtain  a  just  redress  of  their  grievances  as 
aforesaid,  were  determined  to  make  application  to  his  Majesty;  ^ 
but  so  it  remarkably  came  to  pass  that  in  this  very  year  of  1747, 
the  General  Assembly  of  this  Province  made  an  act  for  reviv- 
ing and  continuing  sundry  laws  expired  or  near  expiring,  wherein 
the  act  to  exempt  the  persons  commonly  called  Quakers,  and 
also  the  act  further  to  exempt  persons  commonly  called  Anabap- 
tists, and  every  clause,  article,  and  thing  therein  contained  were 


gational  ministers  to  be  genuinely  orthodox,  and  they  thought  it  wrong  to 
assess  the  majority  of  the  inhabitants  to  support  these  ministers,  and  hence 
refused  to  do  so.  Consequently,  for  their  non-compliance  with  the  law, 
they  were  cast  into  prison.  A  memorial,  however,  in  their  behalf  was 
sent  to  "  King  George,  of  Great  Britain,"  etc.,  and  he  was  pleased  to 
order  that  the  ministerial  tax  should  be  remitted,  and  that  the  imprisoned 
assessors,  after  their  thirteen  months'  confinement,  should  "  be  immedi- 
ately released  "  !  For  this  interesting  memorial,  see  Backus'  "  History," 
Vol.  I.,  p.  501. 

1  Among  the  Backus  manuscripts  is  a  subscription  paper,  dated  Provi- 
dence, March  7,  1749,  signed  by  Elder  Ephraim  Bound  and  others,  to 
pay  expenses  of  an  agent  to  England  to  make  known  the  needs  of  the 
Baptist  cause  in  this  country.  Mr.  Bound  was  one  of  the  constituent 
members  and  also  the  first  pastor  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church  in  Boston. 

O 


158  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STKUOGLES 

revived,  continued,  and  to  remain  in  full  force  ten  years  from 
the  publication  of  this  act  ;  Your  Excellency,  His  Majesty's 
Council,  and  the  House  of  Representatives  therein,  publicly, 
like  wise  and  good  legislators,  declaring  in  so  many  words  that 
the  aforesaid  laws  (to  exempt  the  ()uakers  and  Baptists)  have  by 
experience  been  found  beneficial  and  necessary.  This  was  the 
most  generous,  just,  and  kind  treatment  that  the  Baptists  and 
Quakers  ever  experienced  from  the  General  Assembly  of  the 
Massachusetts  Bay,  and  inasmuch  as  it  was  purely  the  effect  ot 
their  own  good  will  and  mere  motion,  not  being  solicited  there- 
for, and  the  exemption  extended  to  a  longer  term  of  years  :han 
any  of  the  former  acts,  it  was  still  the  more  beneficent,  and 
failed  not  to  penetrate  the  hearts  of  our  people  with  proportion- 
ate sentiments  of  real  thankfulness  to  the  whole  (ieneral  Court, 
and  in  a  singular  manner  to  your  Excellency,  under  whose 
Serene  Administration  it  had  its  first  operation.  The  Baptists 
now,  and  with  good  reason  as  might  be  supposed,  justly  ex- 
pected, after  all  their  former  tossings,  conflicts,  and  afflictions, 
to  have  enjoyed  peace  and  rest  in  the  land  for  at  least  the  term 
of  ten  years,  commencing  as  aforesaid.  P>ut  these,  their  expec- 
tations were,  it  seems,  soon  cut  down  and  withered.  For  so  in- 
deed it  was  that  sometime  about  the  beginning  of  last  year, 
1753,  your  Excellency,  unhappily  for  us,  being  then  in  Europe, 
that  the  Lieut.  (^■o\  ernor.  Council,  and  House  of  Representatives 
passed  an  act  which  is  surprisingly  entitled,  "  An  act  in  addi- 
tion to  an  act,  passed  the  13th  year  of  his  present  Majesty's 
reign  entitled,  an  act  further  to  exempt  persons,  commonly 
called  Anabaptists,  within  this  Province,  from  being  taxed  for 
and  toward  the  support  of  ministers,"  \\hich  runs  thus  : 

"Whereas,  notwithstanding  the  provision  already  made  by  an 
act  made  and  passed  in  the  13th  year  of  his  present  Majesty's 
reign,  entitled,  an  act  further  to  exempt  persons,  commonly  called 
Anabaptists,  within  this  Province,  from  being  taxed  for  and 
toward  the  support  of  ministers,  in  order  to  ascertain  and  make 
known  what  persons  are  of  that  persuasion  which  denominate 
themselves  Anabaptists,  and  who  shall  enjoy  the  privilege  and 
be  esteemed  as  entitled  to  the  exem])tic)n  from  taxes,  etc.,  in 
said  act   mentioned,  many  doubts   have   already  arisen   thereon, 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      159 

and  in  many  cases  the  said  exemption  has  been  extended  to 
many  persons  to  whom  the  same  was  never  designed  to  extend — 
for  preventing  thereof  for  the  future,  and  in  order  to  ascertain 
more  effectually  what  persons  shall  be  esteemed  and  accounted 
as  Anabaptists,  and  to  whom  the  said  exemption  shall  thereafter 
be  extended, 

"  Be  it  oiactt'd,  by  the  Lieut.  Governor,  Council,  and  House  of 
Representatives,  that  no  person  for  the  future  shall  be  so  esteemed 
to  be  an  Anabaptist  as  to  have  his  poll  or  polls  and  estate  ex- 
empted from  paying  a  proportionate  part  of  the  taxes  that  shall 
be  raised  in  the  town  or  place  where  he  or  they  belong,  but  such 
whose  names  shall  be  contained  in  the  lists  taken  by  the  assess- 
ors as  in  said  act  provided,  or  such  as  shall  produce  a  certificate 
under  the  hands  of  the  minister,  and  of  two  principal  members  of 
such  Church,  setting  forth  that  they  conscientiously  believe  such 
person  or  persons  to  be  of  their  persuasion,  and  that  he  or  they 
usually  and  frequently  attend  the  public  worship  in  such  Church 
on  Lord's  days  :  And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  no  miJtister  nor 
the  Jiieinhers  of  any  Anabaptist  Church  as  aforesaid,  shall  be 
esteemed  qualified  to  give  such  certificate  as  aforesaid  other  than 
such  as  shall  have  obtained  front  three  other  churches  commonly 
called  Anabaptists,  in  this  or  the  neighboring  Provinces,  a  cer- 
tificate from  each  respectively,  that  they  esteem  such  church  to  be 
one  of  their  denomination,  and  that  they  conscientiously  believe 
them  to  be  Anabaptists,  the  several  certificates  aforesaid  to  be; 
lodged  with  the  town  clerk  where  the  Anabaptist  (desiring  such 
exemption)  dwells,  sometime  betwixt  the  raising  or  granting  of 
the  tax  and  the  assessment  of  the  same  on  the  inhabitants.  This 
act  to  continue  to  be  in  force  for  five  years  from  the  publication 
thereof  and  no  longer. 

This  truly  strange  sort  of  an  act,  your  remonstrants  have 
herein  as  above  transcribed  at  large  as  it  stands,  and  present  the 
same  in  open  view  to  your  Excellency  and  this  Honorable  Court 
with  all  respectful  modesty  and  deference,  craving  leave  to  ob- 
serve that  as  there  is  no  legislative  power  or  authority  whatsoever 
existing  in  this  his  Majesty's  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay 
but  what  stands  subjected  and  amenable  to  a  much  higher  tribu- 
nal at  home,  and  whereas,  there  seems  to  be  a  great  probability 


l6o  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

from  the  continued  ill-treatment  which  our  ancestors  and  we  of 
the  Baptist  Persuasion,  now  surviving,  have  undergone  in  this 
Province,  and  the  same  ill  spirit  being  at  this  day  in  many  towns 
too  predominant,  that  our  just  complaints  thereupon  (unless  fully 
redressed  here)  must  of  course  be  sent  home. 

For  these  reasons  therefore  we  humbly  pray  of  your  Excel- 
lency and  this  Honorable  Court  that  your  memorialists  may  not 
be  looked  upon  in  a  culpable  light  when  we  complain  and  re- 
monstrate, with  all  just  freedom  and  openness  of  mind  becoming 
Freemen,  good  Protestants,  and  loyal  subjects  of  his  Majesty, 
against  the  said  act  passed  by  the  said  Lieut.  (lovernor.  Council, 
and  House  of  Representatives,  as  being  contrary  to  the  liberty  of 
conscience  granted  us  by  the  royal  charter  aforesaid,  and  repug- 
nant to  the  laws  of  England,  and  which  hath,  as  far  as  therein 
lay,  disfranchised,  unchurched,  and  usurped  an  illegal  power 
over,  all  the  religious  Societies  of  the  people  in  the  said  act 
called  Anabaptists,  throughout  this  his  Majesty's  Province  of 
the  Massachusetts  Bay,  and  moreover,  subjected  each  and  every 
Anabaptist  Church  in  the  Province  in  a  very  unreasonable  and 
unheard  of  manner  to  a  new  sort  of  Spiritual  Court,  consisting 
at  least  of  three  other  Anabaptist  Churches,  as  the  acts  call  them, 
to  give  each  of  them  a  certificate  respectively, — and  for  what  ? 
— why,  truly  that  an  Anabaptist  Church  is  truly  an  Anabaptist, 
so  that,  indeed,  it  is  necessary  by  this  act  the  four  Anabaptist 
churches  must  be  co-operating  together  in  this  jumbled  decision. 
But  may  it  please  your  Excellency  and  Honors,  when  is  it  possi- 
ble for  the  poor  Anabaptists  to  find  in  this  or  the  neighboring 
Provinces,  or  indeed  /;/  all  the  world,  the  first  three  authenticated 
Anabaptist  Ministers  and  Churches  to  certify  and  authenticate 
the  first  three  ?  Over  and  above  the  obvious  absurdities  in  this 
unreasonable  act,  the  severity  thereof  is  remarkable  in  exposing 
of  our  said  brethren  to  the  loss  of  so  much  time,  and  the  con- 
siderable charge  and  expense  which  necessarily  must  arise  in 
journeyings  to  and  fro  in  this  Province  and  the  neighboring 
Provinces  in  pursuit  of  such  chimerical  certificates  utterly  impos- 
sible to  be  obtained.' 


1  A  few  days  after  the  Baptist  church  in  Haverhill  was  organized,  in 
May,  1765,  its  pastor,  Hezekiah  Smith,  set  out  for   Boston,  Middlebor 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      l6l 

Always,  heretofore,  until  such  time  as  this  famous  act  was 
made,  the  people  commonly  called  Anabaptists,  in  all  places 
where  they  reside,  as  well  in  this  Province  as  everywhere  else, 
were  looked  upon  as  such  by  professing  themselves  to  be  of  that 
persuasion,  and  by  their  usually  and  frequently  attending  the 
worship  of  God  with  the  people  of  that  denomination  when  op- 
portunity so  presented,  as  also  by  their  distinguishing  character- 
istic of  immersing  or  dipping  the  person  baptized  in  water. 
And  the  assessors  in  every  town  where  such  Anabaptists  dwell 
were  expressly  ordered,  as  aforesaid,  to  take  a  list  of  all  such 
persons  that  they  might  be  exempted  accordingly  (without  their 
being  drove  about,  either  in  the  Province  or  out  of  it,  to  hunt 
for  certificates);  and  of  the  repeated  omission  of  the  assessors  in 
doing  their  duty  herein  as  the  acts  directed,  we  have,  as  herein- 

ough,  and  Warren,  to  get  for  his  church  the  certificates  as  above  required. 
His  diary  has  the  following  record  of  his  return :  "  We  went  from 
Warren  [where  he  also  obtained  an  extra  certificate  from  brethren  of  a 
Newport  Church,  who  happened  to  be  in  the  place]  to  the  Rev.  Backus, 
in  Middleborough,  and  I  preached  a  sermon  in  his  meeting  house  from 
'Even  so.  .  .  Amen.'  Several  were  much  affected.  We  got  a  certifi- 
cate from  that  Church  to  the  Haverhill  Church,  and  then  we  went  off 
to  Boston,"  where  he  obtained  two  more  certificates,  thus  making  five 
in  all.  There  was  need  of  haste  in  this  certificate  business,  for  the 
first  parish  had  determined  at  this  time  to  build  a  new  meeting-house 
at  an  expense  of  three  hundred  pounds,  and  Baptists,  with  others,  were 
taxed  to  pay  this  amount.  The  wealthiest  man  in  town,  Mr.  John 
White,  a  merchant,  though  not  belonging  to  the  church,  was  an  active 
member  of  the  Baptist  society,  and  a  certificate  duly  signed  was  handed 
in  stating,  in  the  words  of  the  law,  that  he  and  another  person  men- 
tioned, were  believed  to  be  "conscientiously  of  our  persuasion,  and 
that  they  do  frequently  and  usually  attend  public  worship  with  us  on  the 
Lord's  days."  Mr.  White,  refusing  to  pay  the  tax,  sued  the  assessors 
for  seizing  his  goods.  His  case  was  brought  to  trial,  was  carried  up  from 
one  court  to  another,  and  was  finally  decided  against  him  on  the  ground 
of  an  alleged  ambiguity  in  the  law — whether  it  referred  to  a  baptized 
member  of  the  church  or  to  a  stated  worshiper,  or  to  both — and  the  affair 
cost  Mr.  White  about  eighty  pounds.  For  an  account  of  the  bitter, 
shameful  persecutions  of  Elder  Smith  and  certain  members  of  his  church, 
see  Backus'  "  History,"  and  Guild's  "  Chaplain  Smith  and  the  Baptists." 


r62  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

before  observed,  often  complained,  but  to  no  effect.  For  which 
reasons  (and  many  others  might  be  offered)  the  said  people, 
called  Anabaptists,  ought  not  to  be  exposed  as  abovesaid,  to  such 
unreasonable  difficulties,  costs,  loss  of  time,  and  damages,  which 
this  violent  act  subjects  them  to.  And  what  still  adds  an  ag- 
gravation hereto  is  the  further  contemplation  that  his  Honor, 
the  Lieut.  Ciovernor,  the  Council,  and  the  House  of  Representa- 
tives that  made  this  act,  were  almost  all,  if  not  every  one  of 
them,  Dissenters  themselves  from  the  Church  of  England,  as 
well  as  the  poor  Anabaptists  against  whom  this  act  so  sorely 
militates,  and  which  hath  effectually,  though  covertly,  revoked, 
repealed,  and  made  void  the  ten  years'  revival  of  the  act  made 
for  our  relief  and  exemption  as  aforesaid,  and  in  lieu  thereof  set 
up  an  Inquisition  in  this  Province  among  his  Majesty's  Protest- 
ant subjects  called  Anabaptists,  which  our  said  constituents  and 
your  memorialists  are  fully  determined,  at  all  events,  never  to  sub- 
mit to.  It  is  well  known  that  his  Majesty  expecteth,  as  the 
charter  plainly  points  out  and  expressly  declareth,  that  all  his 
loving  subjects  of  every  Denomination  of  Protestants  in  this 
Province  shall  have  liberty  of  conscience  and  be  religiously, 
peaceably,  and  civilly  governed,  protected,  and  defended,  that 
so  the  Indian  natives  may  be  won  to  the  Christian  Faith.  But 
is  this  indeed  liberty  of  conscience  for  one  great  party  of  Pro- 
testant Dissenters  of  this  Province,  commonly  called  Congrega- 
tionalists,  violently  to  lay  hold  of  a  much  less  and  more  feeble 
party  of  their  fellow  Dissenters  in  this  Province  commonly  called 
Anabaptists,  standing  upon  an  ecjual  level  in  the  Royal  Act  of 
Indulgence  with  the  other  Protestant  Dissenters,  and  forcibly  to 
compel  the  said  Anabaptists  to  pay  ministerial  rates  and  taxes 
against  their  consciences  too — Dissenting  ministers  of  quite  an- 
other denomination  and  on  whose  ecclesiastical  administrations 
our  said  brethren  do  not  attend,  and  such  their  just  and  reason- 
able refusal  to  pay  such  ministerial  rates,  to  be  harassed,  impov- 
erished, imprisoned,  and  their  estates  crumbled  and  distrained 
away  from  them,  as  very  lately  and  notoriously  has  been  the 
distressed  case  of  several  of  our  brethren  in  the  County  of  Wor- 
cester (more  especially  in  the  towns  of  l^pton  and  Sturbridge  to 
a  surprising   degree),    and   are    such    proceedings  as  these  the 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      163 

blessed  effects  of  being  "religiously,  peaceably,  and  civilly  gov- 
erned, protected,  and  defended,"  and  can  a  sight  of  such  ava- 
ricious transgression  be  the  likely  means  to  "win  over  the  In- 
dian natives  to  the  Christian  religion  "  ?  * 

Your  memorialists,  may  it  please  your  Excellency  and  this 
Honorable  Court,  are  ordered  by  their  said  brethren  and  con- 
stituents in  a  serious  manner  to  remonstrate  against  this  last 
mentioned  act  as  a  manifest  infringement  upon  the  natural  and 
religious  rights  of  the  said  people  therein  called  Anabaptists, 
and  further  to  remonstrate  and  complain  against  all  and  every 
other  act  and  acts  whatsoever  heretofore  made  in  this  his 
Majesty's  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  wherein  the  said 
people  called  Anabaptists  were  enforced  or  in  any  other  shape 
compelled  to  pay  such  ministerial  rates  aforesaid,  inasmuch  as 
all  such  payments  are  contrary  to  their  consciences,  and  that 
all  such  acts  intended  to  force  and  compel  them  thereto  are  con- 
trary to  the  liberty  of  conscience  to  them  so  freely  held  forth  in 
the  Royal  Charter,  and  unto  them  given  and  granted  as  exten- 
sively and  upon  as  good  a  footing  without  reserve  as  to  any 
other,  all  or  either  of  his  Majesty's  Protestant  subjects  of  this 
Province  whomsoever,  and  that  therefore  the  said  people  com- 
monly called  Anabaptists  in  this  Province  are,  and  ought  to  be, 
by  the  said  Royal  Charter,  in  all  points  of  a  religious  nature, 
equally  as  independent  and  free  from  all  spiritual  subordination 
and  ghostly  subjection  to  any  other  Denomination  or  Denomina- 

1  "  Even  Boston  gaol,  it  seems,  unhappily  begins  anew  to  be  the  recep- 
tacle for  such  of  the  country  Baptists  as  refuse  to  pay  ministerial  rates. 
An  ancient  man,  named  Eleazer  Adams,  a  substantial  freeholder  of  Med- 
way,  a  constant  attender  and  for  several  years  past,  at  the  Baptist  meet- 
ing at  Bellingham,  was  brought  away  from  his  own  house,  27  miles  dis- 
tance, and  committed  close  prisoner  in  said  gaol  the  loth  of  April  last ; 
and  not  long  before  another  man,  named  lesse  Holbrook,  of  Bellingham, 
a  constant  worshipper  with  said  Baptists,  was  committed  to  Boston  gaol 
for  the  ministers'  rate  of  Wrentham,  all  bail  being  refused." 

At  a  later  point  we  may  refer  to  the  oppressions  in  Sturbridge.  At 
Upton  several  cows  were  taken  from  different  individuals  for  ministers' 
rates,  and  in  March,  1753,  the  pastor,  Abraham  Bloss,  afterward  of  Attle- 
borough,  was  confined  forty  days  in  jail  for  a  tax  to  the  minister. 


164  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

tions  of  Protestant  Dissenters  of  this  I'rovince,  as  they  or  either 
of  the  said  Denominations  are  and  ought  to  be  free  and  inde- 
pendent in  religious  matters  from  the  people  called  Anabaptists. 
From  hence  your  remonstrants,  with  all  just  deference,  appre- 
hend it  of  course  followelh  that  however  large  or  numerous  one 
Denomination  of  Protestant  Dissenters  in  this  Province  may  in- 
crease in  people,  and  thereby  become  above  another  Denomina- 
tion, even  to  be  so  numerous  as  to  gain  such  an  ascendant  as  to 
make  up  the  whole  legislative  power  in  all  its  parts,  yet,  never- 
theless, such  Denomination  as  last  mentioned  derives  not  there- 
from any  authority  whereby  to  make  any  act  or  acts  whatsoever 
to  oppress,  afflict,  or  unjustly  subordinate  the  less  or  more  feeble 
Denominations  of  his  Majesty's  Protestant  subjects  of  this  Prov- 
ince in  matters  of  religion  and  conscience.  And  were  it  in- 
deed the  case  that  such  an  act  or  acts  as  last  mentioned  may 
have  heretofore  been  made  in  this  province  and  sent  home  for 
the  Royal  Approbation  and  not  disapproved  in  three  years,  it 
avails  not  the  least  in  this  case,  nor  is  any  strength,  force,  or 
efficacy  whatsoe\er  thereby  added  to  such  act  or  acts,  they  being 
contrary  to  the  charter  as  aforesaid,  and  repugnant  to  the  laws 
of  England.  And  in  point  of  law  (as  your  memorialists  are  in- 
formed) such  repugnant  act  or  acts  never  had  nor  can  have  any 
existence  unless  the  Charter  were  invalid. 

We  humbly  crave  your  Excellency's  indulgence  and  this 
Honorable  Court's  favorable  goodness  for  extending  this  our 
memorial  and  remonstrance  to  such  an  unusual  length,  made  so 
by  the  long-continued  oppressions  productive  thereof,  further 
humbly  praying  that  the  said  act  passed  by  the  Lieut.  Governor, 
Council,  and  House  of  Representatives  may  be  repealed,  and 
that  an  act  may  be  made  and  passed  totally  and  forever  to  ex- 
empt the  said  people  commonly  called  .Anabaptists,  and  every  of 
them  within  this  his  Majesty's  T'rovince  of  the  IVLassachusetts 
Bay,  from  paying  any  ministerial  rates,  taxes,  or  assessments 
whatsoever,  and  that  such  person  or  persons  professing  himself 
or  themselves  to  be  of  that  persuasion  commonly  called  Anabap- 
tists, may  be  deemed  so  accordingly  without  further  harassment 
or  vexation,  and  that  all  such  persons  within  this  Province, 
commonly  called  Anabaptists,  that  have  at  any  time  within  the 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      1 65 

space  of  five  years  last  past  had  their  bodies  imprisoned  for 
ministerial  rates,  or  their  estates,  goods  and  chattels  distrained 
therefor,  may  be  honestly  refunded  their  just  damages.  Such 
an  act  as  this  will  manifestly  display  the  disposition  of  the  Gov- 
ernment of  the  Province  to  be  honorable,  upright,  and  impartial  ; 
will  silence  the  cries  of  the  oppressed  ;  will  put  a  stop  to  such 
grievances  as  in  default  thereof  will  necessarily  be  laid  before 
his  Majesty  ;  will  be  a  further  means  of  increasing  the  strength 
of  this  Province  by  bringing  in  inhabitants  from  abroad,  and 
keeping  others  already  here  from  moving  out,  and  will,  with 
all  becoming  thankfulness  be  received  by  the  said  people  com- 
monly called  Anabaptists,  among  which  number  are  included 
your  memorialists  and  remonstrants  as  aforesaid,  who,  as  in 
duty  bound,  will  ever  pray,  &c.  Signed  by  the  Committee, 
Boston,  March  27,   1754. 

The  action  of  the  Court  on  the  above  is  as  follows  : 

In  Council  June  5,  1754,  Read;  and  forasmuch  as  this  Peti- 
tion contains  several  indecent  reflections  on  the  Laws  and  Legis- 
lature of  this  Province,  therefore  Ordered  that  it  be  dismissed. 

This  disappointing  result  led  Mr.  Proctor  to  make 
the  following  explanation  and  additional  appeal  : 

On  Oct.  23,  1754,  the  Memorial  and  Petition  of  John  Proctor, 
agent  in  behalf  of  several  Societies  of  the  people  called  Bap- 
tists, inhabitants  within  the  said  Province,  humbly  sheweth,  That 
on  the  29th  day  of  May  last,  a  Memorial  and  Remonstrance, 
drawn  by  order  of  the  said  people  and  signed  by  a  Committee 
appointed  for  that  purpose,  was  humbly  presented  in  order  to  be 
laid  before  your  Excellency,  the  Council,  and  House  of  Repre- 
sentatives, but  so  indeed  it  e\entually  occurred  that  the  said 
Memorial  was  not  sent  down  to  the  Honorable  House  of  Rep- 
resentatives but  was  read  and  passed  upon  in  Council  as  fol- 
io weth.   .    . 

The  sentiments  of  the  Honorable  Council  and  their  result  con- 
sequent thereupon  have  given  rise  to  this  present  exposition  of 


1 66        NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

the  true  intentions  of  the  said  people,  called  Baptists,  as  con- 
tained in  their  Memorial  and  Remonstrance  abovesaid,  and  your 
Petitioner  in  his  said  capacity  is  directed  by  his  constituents  with 
the  greatest  deference  humbly  to  suggest  and  assure  your  I'^xcel- 
lency  and  Honours  that  nothing  in  the  world  could  be  more 
averse  and  foreign  to  the  real  intention  of  the  said  people  and 
their  Committee  than  to  offer  the  least  indignity  or  indecent  re- 
flections on  the  just  laws  and  Legislature  of  this  Province  ;  and 
that  in  truth  there  was  no  perverseness  of  heart  nor  malevolence 
of  will  operating  in  anywise  whatsoever  against  the  government. 
Your  Memorialist,  therefore,  humbly  supplicates  that  the  former 
sentiments  of  the  Honorable  Council  to  dismiss  the  said  Petition 
may  subside,  and  that  your  Excellency  and  this  Honourable 
Court  would  be  pleased  that  the  Memorial  and  Remonstrance 
aforesaid  may  be  revived  and  the  subject  matter  therein  com- 
plained of  be  committed  to  the  mature  consideration  of  the 
whole  Court  for  the  reasons  therein  mentioned. 

And  your  Petitioner  as  in  duty  bound,  nill  ever  pray. 

John  Proctor. 

In  Council,  Oct.  26,  1754,  Read  and  dismissed — Sent  down 
for  concurrence. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  Nov.  13,  1754,  Read  and 
concurred. 

The  whole  of  the  above  remonstrance  is  printed, 
verbatim  et  literatim,  in  Vol.  IV.  of  Hon.  L^llis  Ames' 
"Acts  and  Resolves  of  the  Province  of  Massachtisetts 
Bay,"  and  the  original  may  be  seen  in  Vol.  XIII.,  p. 
496,  et  seq.,  of  the  State  Archives. 

A  law  similar  to  that  of  1753,  and  equally  burden- 
some, was  passed  in  1757,  by  which  no  Baptists  were 
to  be  exempted  : 

But  such  whose  names  shall  be  contained  in  a  list  or  lists 
to  be  taken  and  e.xhibited  ...  on  or  before  the  20th  of  July, 
annually,  to  the  assessors  of  such  town,  district,  precinct,  or 
parish,  and  signed  by  three  principal   members  of  the  Anabap- 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      1 67 

tist  Church  to  which  he  or  they  belong,  and  the  minister  thereof, 
if  any  there  be,  who  shall  therein  Certify  that  the  persons  whose 
names  are  inserted  in  the  said  list  or  lists  are  really  belonging 
thereto,  and  that  they  verily  believe  them  to  be  conscientiously 
of  their  persuasion,  and  that  they  do  frequently  and  usually  at- 
tend the  public  worship  in  such  Church  on  the  Lord's  Day. 

This  law,  which  had  reference  to  the  Quakers  also, 
was  continued  in  force  thirteen  years,  till  February, 
1 77 1,  and,  "  No  tongue  or  pen,"  says  Backus,  "  can  fully 
describe  all  the  evils  that  were  practised  under  it."^ 
In  November,  1770,  a  new  law  was  framed  in  which 
the  title,  Atiti-pedobaptists  was  substituted  for  Anabap- 
tists, and  the  word  congregation  for  cJiurcJi.  Certificates 
were  to  be  signed  by  three  or  more  principal  members, 
and  the  minister,  if  there  be  any.  ''The  parishes,"  as 
Backus  states  it,  "  were  empowered  to  vote  the  Bap- 
tists clear,  if  they  pleased,  without  certificates.  But 
the  word  Conscientiously  was  still  retained,  and  the  cer- 
tificates were  required  to  be  given  in  annually  [Septem- 
ber first]  to  parish  assessors."  As  late  as  1786  a  law 
was  made  confounding  ministerial  and  civil  taxes  to- 

^  On  July  7,  1759,  the  following  notice  was  posted  up  in  Middle- 
borough  : 

'•  Whereas,  By  a  late  law  of  this  Province,  it  is  enacted  that  a  list  of 
names  of  those  who  belong  to  each  Baptist  Society  must  be  taken  each 
year  and  given  to  the  Assessors  before  the  20th  of  July  or  else  they  will 
stand  liable  to  be  rated  to  the  ministers  where  they  live ;  therefore  this  is 
to  notify  all  who  belong  to  the  Baptist  Society  who  usually  meet  for  pub- 
lic worship  in  this  place,  that  a  meeting  is  appointed  by  the  Committee  to 
be  at  our  meeting-house  on  Monday  the  i6th  instant  at  two  of  the  clock 
in  the  afternoon,  for  each  one  that  is  seriously  of  our  persuasion  to  appear 
in  order  that  a  list  may  be  taken  agreeable  to  said  acts,  and  also  to  con- 
sider of  other  things  which  may  be  judged  proper  for  the  welfare  of  the 
Society."  "  July  16,  1759,  a  list  of  52  names  were  given  in." — Backus' 
Ms. 


l68  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

gether,  and  so  the  contest  went  on.  To  say  nothing 
of  other  difficulties,  our  Baptist  fathers  could  not,  of 
course,  conscientiously  call  themselves  or  their  friends 
anabaptists,  or  rebaptizers,  since  they  held  their  infant 
baptism  or  sprinkling  to  be  but  a  nullity.  It  will  thus 
be  seen  that  these  laws  were  oppressive  and  humiliat- 
ing in  a  high  degree,  and  Backus,  Manning,  Smith, 
Stillman,  and  others,  fought  against  them  as  long  as 
they  lived. 

As  the  different  exemption  laws  of  Massachusetts 
have  passed  before  us  in  review,  we  may  here  briefly 
notice  some  of  the  ecclesiastical  laws  of  Connecticut, 
and  their  working — that  State  having  been  settled 
chiefly  by  Puritan  emigrants  from  Massachusetts.  In 
1708  the  Saybrook  Platform  was  adopted,  which  made 
provision  for  a  "  Consociation  "  of  neighboring  churches 
that  resembled  in  some  respects  the  modern  "  Presby- 
tery," and  was  thought  by  many  to  be  a  serious  in- 
fringement on  the  independence  and  liberty  of  the 
churches  and  of  individual  members.  Joseph  Backus, 
grandfather  of  Isaac,  was  strongly  opposed  to  this 
scheme.  He  finally  withdrew  from  the  Consociated 
Church,  and  for  this  act  was  e.xpelled  from  the  legisla- 
ture. In  1727  a  law  was  enacted,  favoring  the  Episco- 
palians, and  in  October,  1729,  the  Assembly  "passed  an 
act  to  allow  the  Baptists  the  same  privileges  as  were 
granted  the  Quakers  the  May  before  ;  both  of  them 
being  perpetual  laws,  and  not  such  temporary  acts  as 
the  Massachusetts  have  perplexed  themselves  and 
others  with  "  (Backus).  Those  who  desired  exemption 
from  paying  ministerial  rates  were  required  to  produce 
"certificates,"  etc.,  as  in  Massachusetts, 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      169 

The  following,  which  is  an  "  exact  coppie  of  ye  peti- 
tion sent  to  ye  Honourable  General  Assembly  of  Con- 
necticut," may  have  had  something  to  do  with  procur- 
ing for  the  Baptists  the  exemption  act  of  1729.  We 
extract  it  from  the  "  Diary  of  John  Comer  "  : 

To  the  Honourable  General  Assembly  of  ye  Colony  of  Con- 
necticut to  be  convened  at  New  Haven  on  ye  second  Thursday 
of  October  next.  The  humble  Memorial  of  ye  General  Associa- 
tion of  ye  Baptist  Churches  convened  at  North  Kingston  on  ye 
6th  day  of  September,  A.  d.  1729,  humbly  showeth,  That  yr 
Honours'  Petitioners  having  sundry  Brethren  of  their  Commun- 
ion dwelling  up  and  down  in  your  Colony,  they  therefore  do 
hereby  humbly  crave  yt  an  Act  of  Assembly  may  be  passed  to 
free  them  from  paying  any  taxes  to  any  ministry  except  their 
own,  and  from  building  any  meeting-houses  except  for  their  own 
use,  humbly  hoping  your  Honours  will  consider  they  are  utterly 
unable  to  maintain  their  own  way  of  worship  and  to  pay  taxes 
also  to  ye  Presbyterians,  and  yt  the  gracious  act  of  indulgence 
together  with  the  reasonableness  of  our  request  will  be  motive 
sufficient  to  move  yr  Honours  to  grant  ye  request  of  yr  Honours' 
humble  Memorialists.  "  Signed  in  ye  name  and  by  ye  order  of 
the  sd  Association,  by  Elders  Richard  Sweet,  Valentine  Wight- 
man,  Samuel  Fisk,  John  Comer,  Pardon  Tillinghast." 

In  connection  with  this  was  sent  another  petition 
signed  at  Newport,  September  10,  1729,  by  Governor 
Joseph  Jenks,  Elders  James  Clarke  and  Daniel  Wight- 
man,  and  two  brethren,  which  petition  reads  as  follows  : 

To  the  Honorable  General  Assembly  of  ye  Colony  of  Con- 
necticut to  be  convened  at  New  Haven  on  ye  2°*^  Thursday  of 
October  next,  these  lines  may  signifie  yt  we  ye  subscribers  do 
heartily  concur  with  ye  Memorial  of  our  Brethren  on  ye  other 
side  and  humbly  request  ye  same  may  be  granted,  which  we 
think  will  much   tend  to  Christian  unity  and  be  serviceable  to 

P 


I/O  NEW  England's  struggles 

true  religion,  and  will  very  much  rejoice  your  Honours'  friends 
and  very  humble  servants.    .    . 

There  was  drawn  from  ye  Treasury  of  ye  church  at  Newport 
40s.  towards  defraying  ye  Charges  in  preferring  ye  Petition. 

During  the  time  of  the  Great  Awakening,  in  1742, 
an  act  was  passed  which  deprived  a  settled  minister  of 
his  salary  if  he  preached  in  another  parish  without  in- 
vitation or  consent  of  the  parish  minister.  And  every 
offender,  not  an  inhabitant  within  the  colony,  whether 
an  ordained  minister  or  only  an  exhorter,  shall  be  sent 
as  a  vagrant  person  out  of  the  bounds  of  the  colony 
as  being  not  only  a  disorderly  person,  but  guilty  of  a 
crime.  This  law  of  course  had  special  reference  to 
Whitefield  and  his  fellow-laborers.  Benedict  states 
that  an  itinerant  Baptist  preacher.  Rev.  Mr.  Marshall, 
was  put  in  the  stocks  on  a  warm  summer  day,  for  ag- 
gression on  parish  lines,  and  was  imprisoned  in  Wind- 
ham jail  "for  preaching  the  gospel  contrary  to  the 
law."  In  1747  Rev.  Philemon  Robbins,  who  by  re- 
quest preached  to  a  Baptist  society,  was  for  this  offense 
excluded  from  the  Consociation,  deposed  from  the 
ministry  and  from  communion  in  any  of  the  churches 
"until  he  shall  have  in  a  public  and  Christian  manner 
reflected  on  himself  for  his  crimes  and  faults  to  the 
satisfaction  of  the  Consociation  of  the  county  of  New 
Haven."  This  virtually  is  the  confession  they  drew 
up  for  him,  but  which  he  refused  to  sign  :  "  I,  the  sub- 
scriber, acknowledge  that  I  am  sorry  I  preached  dis- 
orderly at  WalJingford  [to  the  Baptists],  and  prayed  at 
the  separation  at  New  Haven,  and  promise  not  to  do 
so  again." 

In  after  years  the  first  exempting  acts  were  broad- 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH       I71 

ened  so  that  all  dissenters  could  be  exempted,  provided 
they  ordinarily  attended  meetings  in  their  respective 
societies  and  paid  their  due  proportion,  etc.  Some 
Baptists  in  Stafford  joined  a  church  in  Wellington,  but 
on  account  of  the  distance  and  roughness  of  the  way- 
could  not  attend  as  often  as  they  wished,  or  the  law 
required.  In  suing  for  their  goods,  which  had  been 
distrained  from  them,  the  counsel  urged  in  their  behalf 
that  they  were  Baptists  sentimentally,  practically,  and 
legally.  Against  them  it  was  urged  that  they  were 
amenable  to  the  law,  since  they  did  not  ordinarily 
attend  their  own  meeting.  The  sympathies  of  the 
judge,  who  was  an  Episcopalian,  were  evidently  on  the 
side  of  the  plaintiffs,  and  so  he  propounded  the  inquiry, 
how  long  a  man  who  was  a  Baptist  soitinientally,  prac- 
tically, and  legally,  must  stay  at  home  to  become  a 
Presbyterian  .-*     The  Baptists  won  their  case. 

Like  the  other  colonies,  Connecticut  early  passed  a 
law  inflicting  on  those  who  neglected  the  public  wor- 
ship of  God  in  some  lawful  congregation,  and  formed 
themselves  into  separate  companies  in  private  houses, 
a  fine  of  twenty  shillings  for  every  such  offense.  Im- 
prisonment, of  course,  in  many  cases,  followed  the  non- 
payment of  fines.  In  February,  1744,  seventeen  per- 
sons, belonging  in  Saybrook,  were  arrested  for  "  holding 
a  meeting  contrary  to  the  law  on  God's  holy  Sabbath," 
and  they  were  driven  on  foot  twenty-five  miles  to  New 
London,  and  were  put  in  jail,  suffering  from  weari- 
ness, want  of  food,  and  fire.  One  of  these  persons,  Mr. 
Job  Bulkley,  at  whose  house  the  meeting  was  held,  was 
an  unconverted  man  ;  but  witnessing  the  faith,  forti- 
tude, and   Christian   spirit  of  these  disciples   he  gave 


172  NKw  ?:ngi.axd's  strugglks 

himself  to  the  Lord  Jesus  Christ  in  the  jail,  and  when 
the  church  was  constituted,  his  name  headed  the  list  of 
members.  Another  of  those  arrested  and  taken  to 
prison  was  a  woman  with  an  infant  in  her  arms.'  In 
1752  the  widowed  mother  of  Isaac  Backus,  being  a 
separatist,  was  imprisoned  for  thirteen  days,  taken  from 
her  home  in_Norvvich  when  sick,  on  a  dark  and  rainy 
night,  seventeen  miles  to  New  London  jail.  She  was 
released  by  some  one  to  her  unknown.  His  brother 
Samuel  lay  in  prison  twenty  days.  In  1784  all  dis- 
senters  had  still  to  "produce  certificates"  signed  by 
the  minister  or  other  of^cer  of  their  order.  And  "  all 
persons  shall  be  taxed  for  the  support  of  the  min- 
istry and  other  charges  of  the  society  wherein  they 
dwell,  who  do  not  attend  and  help  support  other  wor- 
ship." By  a  law  of  1791,  the  certificate  to  be  legal 
had  to  be  approbated  by  one  or  more  justices  of  the 
peace. 

The  following  is  one  of  the  old  forms  of  "  Levy," 
dated  Windham,  September  1 2,  1 794  : 

To  Samuel  Perkins,  a  Collector  of  Society  Ta.xes  in  the  first 
Society  of  Windham  : 

Greeting  :  By  authority  of  the  State  of  Connecticut,  you  are 
hereby  commanded  forthwith  to  levy  and  collect  of  the  persons 
named  in  the  foregoing  list  herewith  committed  to  you,  each  one 
his  several  proportion  as  therein  set  down,  of  the  sum  total  of  such 
list,  being  a  rate  agreed  upon  by  the  inhabitants  of  said  Society, 
and  to  deliver  and  pay  over  the  sums  which  you  shall  collect  to 
the  Treasurer  of  said  Society  within  si.xty  days  next  coming  ;  and 
if  any  person  shall  neglect  or  refuse  to  pay  the  sum  at  which  he 
is  assessed,  you  are  hereby  commanded  to  distrain  the  goods, 


'  From   Dr.  S.  D.  Phelps'  letter  in  "The  Watchman."  1894,  ""   the 
one  hundred  and  fiftieth  anniversary  of  the  Baptist  Church  in  Saybrook. 


SUBSEQUKNT  STRUGGLES— FINAL  TRIUMPH      1 73 

chattels,  or  lands  of  such  person  so  refusing  ;  and  the  same  be- 
ing disposed  of  as  the  law  directs,  return  the  overplus,  if  any,  to 
the  respective  owners  ;  and  for  want  of  such  goods,  chattels,  or 
lands  whereon  to  make  distress,  you  are  to  take  the  body  or 
bodies  of  the  persons  so  refusing,  and  them  commit  to  the 
keeper  of  the  gaol  in  said  County  of  Windham  within  the  prison, 
who  is  hereby  commanded  to  receive  and  safe  keep  them  until 
they  pay  and  satisfy  the  aforesaid  sums  at  which  they  are  respect- 
ively assessed,  together  with  your  fees,  unless  said  assessment, 
or  any  part  thereof,   be  legally  abated. 

Jabez  Clark,  Just.  Peace. 

In  1 8 18  the  new  constitution  put  an  end  to  all  this 
oppression,  and  the  Baptist  pastor  of  Suffield,  Rev. 
Asahel  Morse,  had  the  honor  of  penning  the  article 
which  at  last  secured  religious  liberty. 

IL    THE    FOUNDING    OF    THE   WARREN    ASSOCIATION    AND 
THE    COMMITTEE    OF    GRIEVANCES. 

An  important  movement  in  the  struggle  for  religious 
liberty  was  the  forming  of  the  "Warren  Association  " 
of  Baptist  churches  in  i  'j^'j,  the  Rev.  James  Manning, 
the  pastor  of  the  Warren  Church  and  president  of 
Rhode  Island  College,  being  the  leader  in  this  move- 
ment.^ Eleven  Baptist  churches  were  represented  at 
its  first  meeting  ;  but  four  only,  the  Warren,  Haverhill, 
Bellingham,  and  Second  Middleborough  ventured  to 
try  the  experiment.  Others  were  generally  friendly  to 
the  movement  ;  but  had  some  fears  that  it  might  inter- 
fere with  church  independence.     At  the  Association 

'  For  some  of  the  opposition  which  the  Rhode  Island  College  and 
Manning,  as  its  president,  had  to  encounter,  see  Dr.  R.  A.  Guild's  "  Man- 
ning and  Brown  University,"'  and  more  briefly  in  Dr.  H.  .S.  Burrage's 
"History  of  Baptists  in  New  England,"  Am.  Bap.  Pub.  Soc,  1894. 


174  NEW  rnot.axd's  struggles 

meeting  in  1769,  for  the  third  time  in  Warren,  and  con- 
tinuing as  appears  then  to  have  been  the  custom,  parts  of 
three  days,  "many  letters  from  the  churches  mentioned 
grievous  oppressions  and  persecutions  from  the  Stand- 
ing Order ;  especially  the  one  from  Ashfield,  where 
religious  tyranny  had  been  carried  to  great  lengths." 
In  view  of  these  oppressions  and  of  the  disregard  of 
humble  remonstrances  and  petitions,  it  was  resolved  "  to 
inform  all  the  oppressed  Baptists  in  New  England  that 
the  Association  of  Warren — in  conjunction  with  the 
Western  or  Philadelphia  Association — is  determined 
to  seek  remedy  for  their  brethren  where  a  speedy  and 
effectual  one  may  be  had."  Accordingly  "they  made 
choice  of  agents  and  a  Committee  for  the  purpose  ;  and 
wrote  to  their  Southern  brethren  for  assistance  in  the 
design."  They  caused  petitions  to  be  sent  to  the  leg- 
islatures of  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  and  chose 
as  a  committee  to  seek  redress  of  grievances  :  Revs. 
Samuel  Stillman,  of  Boston  ;  Hezekiah  Smith,  of  Hav- 
erhill ;  Isaac  Backus,  of  Middleborough  ;  Richard  Mon- 
tague, of  Sunderland  ;  Joseph  Meacham,  of  Enfield, 
Ct.  (who  afterward  joined  the  Shakers)  ;  and  Timothy 
Wightman,  of  Groton,  Ct.  The  annual  appointment 
of  a  like  committee  did  not  cease  until  thirty-six  years 
after  this  date.  In  a  circular  letter,  as  recorded  in  Dr. 
Hovey's  "  Memoir  of  Backus,"  President  Manning,  in 
addressing  the  oppressed,  says  : 

lirethren,  we  sympathize  with  you  under  your  afflictions,  while 
we  call  to  mind  the  declaration  of  your  ascended  Head  to  his 
beloved  flock  whom  he  left  behind  :  In  the  world  ye  shall  have 
tribulation.  .  .  Suffer  us,  however,  to  beseech  you  to  use  all 
proper  means  to  obtain   relief  from  the  burdens  imposed  upon 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      175 

you,  by  taking  heed  to  the  general  plan  which  we  as  a  body 
propose  to  pursue. 

In  August  of  next  year,  1770,  this  "Committee  of 
Grievances  "  issued  the  following  notice  in  the  Boston 
"  Evening  Post  "  : 

To  the  Baptists  in  the  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  who 
are  or  have  been  oppressed  in  any  way  on  a  religious  account  : 
It  would  be  needless  to  tell  you  that  you  have  long  felt  the  effects 
of  the  laws  by  which  the  religion  of  the  government  in  which 
you  live  is  estabhshed.  Your  purses  have  felt  the  burden  of 
ministerial  rates,  and  when  these  would  not  satisfy  your  ene- 
mies, your  property  hath  been  taken  from  you  and  sold  for  less 
than  half  its  value.  These  things  you  cannot  forget.  You  will 
therefore  readily  hear  and  attend  when  you  are  desired  to  collect 
your  cases  of  sufferings  and  have  them  well  attested;  such  as  the 
taxes  you  have  paid  to  build  meeting-houses,  to  settle  ministers 
and  support  them,  with  all  the  time,  money,  and  labor  you  have 
lost  in  waiting  on  Courts,  feeing  lawyers,  etc. ;  and  bring  or  send 
such  cases  to  the  Baptist  Association  to  be  held  at  Bellingham, 
when  measures  will  be  resolutely  adopted  for  obtaining  redress 
from  another  quarter  than  that  to  which  repeated  application 
hath  been  made  unsuccessfully.  Nay,  complaints  however  just 
and  grievous  have  been  treated  with  indifference  and  scarcely, 
if  at  all,  credited.  We  deem  this,  our  conduct,  perfectly  justi- 
fiable, and  hope  you  will  pay  a  particular  regard  to  this  desire, 
and  be  exact  in  your  accounts  of  your  sufferings,  and  punctual 
in  your  attendance  at  the  time  and  place  mentioned. 

At  the  Association  held  in  Bellingham,  Sept.  11,  12, 
1770,  they  chose  another  Committee  of  Grievances 
consisting  of  Rev.  Samuel  Stillman,  Rev.  Hezekiah 
Smith,  Rev.  John  Davis,  Rev.  Isaac  Backus,  Rev. 
Noah  Alden,  Philip  Freeman,  Philip  Freeman,  Jr., 
Nathan  Plimpton,  and  Richard  Gridley,  and  also 
"  agreed  to  send  to  the  Swanzey  [i*]  and  Philadelphia 


176  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

Associations,  to  request  them  to  assist  us  by  money 
and  advice."  In  the  Minutes  of  1776,  we  notice  an 
acknowledgment  of  "  monies  received  from  our  breth- 
ren at  Philadelphia  and  elsewhere  for  sufferers  among 
us,  twelve  pounds."  We  presume  there  may  have  been 
other  and  earlier  benefactions  from  that  source  which 
are  not  recorded  or  which  we  have  not  seen.  In  this 
Circular  Letter,  President  Manning  says  : 

We  have  to  inform  you,  dearly  beloved,  that  some  of  our 
churches  are  sorely  oppressed  on  account  of  religion.  Their 
enemies  continue  to  triumph  over  them;  and  as  repeated  applica- 
tions have  been  made  to  the  Court  of  Justice  and  to  the  General 
Courts  for  redress  of  such  grievances,  but  as  yet  have  been  neg- 
lected, it  is  now  become  necessary  to  carry  the  affair  to  Eng- 
land in  order  to  lay  it  before  the  King.  It  is  therefore  warmly 
recommended  to  you  to  endeavor  to  collect  money  to  defray  the 
expense  which  will  arise  from  such  a  proceeding.  Should  you 
not  contribute  in  this  matter,  some  of  our  brethren  must  unavoid- 
ably be  ruined  as  to  this  world;  specially  our  brethren  at  Ash- 
field,  some  of  whose  lands  have  been  taken  from  them  and  sold 
for  a  trifle.  Brethren,  make  the  case  your  own,  and  then  do  as 
you  would  be  done  by. 

Before  the  close  of  1770  the  above-named  commit- 
tee sent  to  the  General  Court  a  petition  having  special 
reference  to  the  oppression  of  Baptists  in  Ashfield. 
In  this  petition,  which  is  printed  in  full  in  Dr.  Hovey's 
"Memoir  of  Backus,"  pp.  177-180,  they  state  that  : 

Three  hundred  and  ninety-eight  acres  of  our  land  have  been 
sold  to  build  and  remove  and  repair  a  meeting-house  in  which 
we  have  no  part,  though  our  inoney  helped  to  build  it,  and  to 
settle  and  support  a  minister  whom  we  cannot  hear.  The  lands 
were  valued  at  three  hundred  and  sixty-three  pounds,  thirteen 
shillings,    lawful  money,   and  were    sold    for  nineteen  pounds, 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      1 77 

three  shillings;  so  that  our  loss  is  three  hundred  and  forty- four 
pounds,  fifteen  shillings,  lawful  money.  Part  of  the  lands  afore- 
said belonged  to  Rev.  Ebenezer  Smith,  a  regular  ordained  Bap- 
tist minister,  who,  together  with  his  father  and  others,  their  breth- 
ren, in  the  last  Indian  war,  built  at  their  own  expense  a  fort 
and  were  a  Frontier  ;  and  this  they  did  for  two  years  without 
any  help  from  any  quarter,  for  which  we  beg  leave  to  say  they 
deserve  at  least  the  common  privilege  of  the  subjects  of  the 
Crown  of  England.  Part  of  said  lands  had  been  laid  out  for  a 
burying  place,  and  so  they  have  taken  from  us  our  dead.  They 
have  also  sold  a  dwelling-house  and  orchard,  and  pulled  up  our 
apple  trees,  and  thrown  down  our  fences,  and  made  our  fields 
waste  places.  ^ 

They  close  their  petition  by  making  three  requests, 
as  follows  : 

(i)  To  repeal  a  law,  entitled  "An  Act  for  erecting  the  New 
Plantation  called  Huntstown,  in  the  County  of  Hampshire,  into 
a  town  by  the  name  of  Ashfield,"  and  restore  to  the  Baptists  in 
said  town  the  lands  which  have  been  taken  from  them  to  sup- 
port the  minister  settled  by  law,  and  give  them  damages  for  the 
many  and  great  injuries  they  have  been  made  to  suffer. 

(2)  To  enable  our  brethren  in  different  parts  of  the  province 
to  recover  damages  for  the  losses  they  have  been  made  to  sus- 
tain on  a  religious  account. 

(3)  To  grant  perpetual  exemption  to  all  Baptists  and  their  con- 
gregations from  all  ministerial  rates  whatsoever,  according  to  the 
full  intent  and  meaning  of  the  Charter  of  the  Province,  that  we 
all  may  enjoy  full  liberty  of  conscience  as  others,  his  Majesty's 
subjects,  in  this  province.     And  also  to  disannul  all  such  rates 

1  Some  notice  of  the  labors  and  sufferings  of  Elder  Smith's  father,  Mr. 
Chileab  Smith,  is  given  in  Backus'  "  History."  He  was  the  great  grand- 
father of  the  renowned  teacher,  Mary  Lyon;  and  so  far  forth  his  wonted 
prayers  for  his  "posterity  to  the  latest  generation  "  were  assuredly  an- 
swered. It  is  stated  that  he  accompanied  Elder  Backus  to  Philadelphia 
to  testify,  if  need  be,  of  the  oppressions  at  Ashfield. 


IjS  NHW  I-;.\(;i.AXI>\s   STRUGGLES 

laid  heretofore  on  anv  of  our  peo|)lc  in  this  (".o\  ernment.      And 

yoin-  petitioners  as  in  duty  l)ound  will  ever  pray. 

,.,,,,.,        ,    ,  (  Samuel  Stillman, 

Signed  in  beliali  oi  the  whole  ■ 

,.         .  <  Hezekiah  Smith, 

Lommittee,  1 

\  John  Davis. 

At  the  Association  referred  to,  Hezekiah  Smith  was 
chosen  Agent  to  the  Court  of  Great  Britain  to  act  in 
conjunction  with  Rev.  Samuel  Stennett,  Rev.  Benja- 
min Wallin,  and  Thomas  Llewelyn,  ll.  d.,  of  London. 
In  the  Minutes  for  1773,  these  English  brethren  say, 
in  response,  that  they  "will  cheerfully  unite  in  every 
measure  that  may  from  time  to  time  be  thought  right 
and  prudent  to  promote  the  cause  of  truth  and  liberty 
in  general,  and  that  of  our  denomination  in  particular." 
Mr.  Smith  declined  the  above  agency,  but  the  English 
brethren,  of  whom  Dr.  Stennett  acted  the  most  effi- 
cient part,  laid  the  Ashfield  matter  before  the  Court  of 
St.  James,  whereupon  "his  Majesty  was  pleased  with 
the  advice  of  his  Privy  Council  to  declare  his  disallow- 
ance of  the  said  Act  [incorporating  the  town  of  Ash- 
field], and  to  order  that  the  said  Act  be  and  it  is  hereby 
disallowed  and  rejected.  Whereof  the  Governor,  Lieu- 
tenant Governor,  or  Commander  in  Chief  of  his  Majes- 
ty's said  Province  of  the  Massachusetts  Bay  for  the 
time  being,  and  all  others  whom  it  may  concern,  are  to 
take  notice  and  govern  themselves  accordingly."  Thus 
help  for  the  Ashfield  Baptists  came  at  last — and  from 
abroad  ! 

III.    THE  APPOINTMENT  OF    AN  AGENT  FOR    THE    BAPTIST 
CHURCHES. 

Mr.  Smith,  as  we  have  seen,  declined  the  special 
agency  intrusted  to  him,  and  so  the  Association  meet- 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES  — FINAL  TRIUMPH      1 79 

ing  at  Sutton,  in  1771,  appointed  Rev.  John  Davis, 
pastor  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church  in  Boston,  "as 
their  agent,  to  use  his  best  endeavours,  by  the  advice 
of  their  Committee,  in  concert  with  their  agents  in 
London,  to  obtain  the  establishment  of  equal  religious 
liberty  in  this  land."  Mr.  Davis'  health  soon  failed, 
and  he  died  December,  1772,  in  the  thirty-sixth  year  of 
his  age.  The  "  scurrilous  treatment  from  the  press," 
which  he  incurred  through  his  efficiency  and  faithful- 
ness as  clerk  of  the  Committee  of  Grievances,  is  re- 
ferred to  in  Backus'  "History,"  "V^ol.  II.,  157,  176. 
In  September  of  this  year,  1772,  Elder  Isaac  Backus 
was  chosen  in  Mr.  Davis'  place  as  agent  for  the  Bap- 
tist churches  "  to  transact  their  affairs  the  year  ensu- 
ing, both  in  this  country  and  with  our  agents  in 
London,"  with  the  advice  of  the  committee  as  previ- 
ously appointed.  As  agent  for  the  churches  some  ten 
years,  and  as  a  member  of  the  Committee  of  Grievances, 
he  wrote  numerous  articles  for  the  newspapers,  also 
special  appeals  or  addresses,  as  for  example,  to  the 
People  of  New  England  ;  to  the  Public  for  Religious 
Liberty  against  the  Oppressions  of  the  Present  Day  ;  to 
the  Baptist  Churches  throughout  the  Land  ;  to  the  Gen- 
eral Court  of  Massachusetts  ;  to  the  Continental  Con- 
gress at  Philadelphia ;  to  the  Provincial  Congress  of 
Massachusetts  ;  to  the  Convention  for  framing  a  State 
Constitution.  He  was  also  chosen  delegate  in  1787 
to  act  in  the  matter  of  ratifying  the  new  Constitution 
of  the  United  States  of  America.  On  Backus'  action 
in  regard  to  this  last-named  matter,  see  Appendix  E. 

Dr.   Burrage   thus   speaks  of   the   services  of    Isaac 
Backus,  the  "  Agent  of  Liberty  "  : 


i8o  NEW  kngland's  struggles 

For  his  long-conlinued  and  unwearied  labors  in  securing  re- 
ligious liberty,  Isaac  Backus  deserves  to  be  held  in  lasting  re- 
membrance. He  did  not  live  to  witness  the  fulfillment  of  his 
hopes  ;  but  the  value  of  iiis  heroic  services  is  recognized  more 
and  more,  and  recently  a  worthy  memorial,  dedicated  June  30, 
1893,  has  replaced  at  his  grave  in  Aliddleboro,  Mass.,  the  earlier 
monument,  which  bore  only  his  name  and  the  date  of  his  birth 
and  death. 

We  may  remark  that  a  second  stone,  which  will 
probably  form  a  tablet  in  the  walls  of  the  new  '♦  Backus 
Memorial  Church,"  contains  an  extended  epitaph  which 
may  be  seen  in  Dr,  Hovey's  "  Life  of  Backus,"  p.  311. 
The  present  monument  is  made  of  the  best  Westerly 
granite  in  the  form  of  an  old-fashioned  pulpit,  having  a 
bronze  tablet  with  inscription  in  front,  and  an  open 
bronze  Bible  on  the  desk,  the  whole  with  platform  cost- 
ing about  $800.  In  form  and  general  characteristics 
it  closely  resembles  the  one  erected  in  Groton,  Ct., 
1890,  to  the  memory  of  Valentine  Wightman,  the  pio- 
neer advocate  of  religious  liberty  in  Connecticut.  The 
inscription  on  the  Backus  monument  reads  as  follows  : 

Elder  Isaac  Backus,  A.  M. 

A  pioneer  Champion  of 
Religious  Liberty,  and  the  earliest 

15aptist  Historian  in  America. 

Born  1724,  died  1806,  in  the  59th 

Year  of  his  ministry  in  this  Precinct. 

Erected  by  a  grateful  people, 

A.  I).   1893.' 


'  Rhode  Island,  as  is  well  known,  has  a  monument  to  religious  liberty 
as  well  as  Massachusetts  and  Connecticut,  and,  indeed,  set  these  two 
States  the  example.  Miss  Betsey  Williams.  Roger's  great  great-grand- 
daughter, bequeathed  to  the  City  of   Providence  a  tract  of  land   near  the 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH       l8l 

Of  his  labors  as  a  historian  Dr.  Hovey  says  : 

His  volumes  are  a  full  storehouse  of  events  indispensable  to 
every  one  who  would  understand  the  true  history  of  New  Eng- 
land. But,  to  those  of  his  own  religious  faith,  they  are  spe- 
cially interesting  ;  for  they  furnish  almost  the  only  memorials 
which  have  come  down  to  us,  of  the  piety,  consistency,  and 
sometimes  heroism,  of  brethren  who  lived  in  a  darker  period, 
and  suffered  long  to  obtain  the  freedom  we  now  enjoy. 

Bancroft  speaks  of  him  as  "  one  of  the  most  exact  of 
our  New  England  historians,"  and  he  "greatly  compli- 
ments him  and  other  historians  from  among  the  Bap- 
tists, when,  in  a  letter  to  Dr.  R.  A.  Guild,  he  says  : 
"I  look  always  to  a  Baptist  historian  for  the  ingenu- 
ousness, clear  discernment,  and  determined  accuracy, 
which  form  the  glory  of  their  great  historian,  Backus." 
May  all  our  Baptist  historians  in  all  coming  time  be 
worthy  of  such  eulogy  ! 

IV.    REFUSAL    TO    GIVE    IN    CERTIFICATES. 

On  May  5,  1773,  six  members  of  the  Advisory  Com- 
mittee met  in  Boston  and  agreed  to  send  this  circular 
to  the  churches  : 

city  to  be  known  as  the  Roger  Williams  Park, — -land  which  the  Narra- 
gansett  Chiefs,  Canonicus,  and  his  ill-fated  nephew,  Miantonomo,  deeded 
to  Williams  in  consideration  of  his  "many  kindnesses  and  services,"  and 
which  "  was  as  much  his  as  any  mans  coat  on  his  back."  On  this  spot 
of  land,  in  Oct.  l6,  1877,  was  dedicated  a  monument  to  Roger  Williams, 
consisting  of  a  bronze  statue,  seven  and  a  half  feet  high,  resting  on  a 
pedestal  twenty-seven  feet  high.  A  picture  of  this  statue,  in  which  he  is 
represented  as  clasping  a  book  on  "  Soul -liberty  "  to  his  heart,  forms  the 
frontispiece  to  Dr.  Cathcart's  "  Baptist  Encyclopi^dia."  .So  let  the  good 
work  of  commemorating  our  pioneer  champions  of  religious  liberty  go 
on  !  The  next  statues  or  monuments  to  be  erected,  should,  in  my  opin- 
ion, be  located  on  the  island  "  Aquedneck/'  in  Narragansett  Bay. 

Q 


l82  NKW  KXr,LAXn\S   STRUGGLES 

Beloved  Friends  : — These  lines  are  lo  acquaint  you  that  five 
of  our  Committee,  appointed  to  care  for  and  consult  the  general 
good  of  the  Baptist  churches  in  this  country,  especially  as  to 
their  union  and  liberties,  met  with  me  at  Boston,  May  5,  1773, 
when  we  received  accounts  that  several  of  our  friends  at  Mendon 
have  lately  had  their  goods  forcibly  taken  from  them,  for  minis- 
terial rates,  and  that  three  more  of  them  at  Chelmsford  (two  of 
whom  were  members  of  the  Baptist  church  there)  were  seized 
for  the  same  cause  last  Winter,  and  carried  prisoners  to  Concord 
jail  ;  so  that  liberty  of  conscience,  the  greatest  and  most  impor- 
tant article  of  all  liberties,  is  evidently  not  allowed  in  this  coun- 
try, not  even  by  the  very  men  who  are  now  making  loud  com- 
plaints of  encroachments  upon  their  own  liberties.  And  as  it 
appears  to  us  clear  that  the  root  of  all  these  difficulties  and  that 
which  has  done  amazing  mischief  in  our  land  is  civil  rulers  as- 
suming a  power  to  make  any  laws  to  govern  ecclesiastical  affairs, 
or  to  use  any  force  to  support  ministers  ;  therefore  these  are  to 
desire  you  to  consider  whether  it  is  not  our  duty  to  strike  so  di- 
rectly at  thrs  root  as  to  refuse  any  conformity  to  their  laws  about 
such  affairs,  even  so  much  as  giving  any  certificates  to  their  As- 
sessors. We  are  fully  persuaded  that  if  we  were  all  united  in 
bearing  what  others  of  our  friends  might  for  a  little  while  suffer 
on  this  account,  a  less  sum  than  has  already  been  expended 
with  lawyers  and  Courts  on  such  accounts,  would  carry  us 
through  the  trial,  and  if  we  should  be  enabled  to  treat  our  op- 
pressors with  a  Christian  temper,  would  make  straining  upon 
others,  under  pretense  of  supporting  religion,  appear  so  odious 
that  they  could  not  get  along  with  it.  \\'e  desire  you  would 
consider  of  these  matters,  and  send  in  your  mind  at  Medfield  on 
the  seventh  of  September  next.    .    . 

From  yours  in  gospel  bonds, 

Isaac  Backus,  Agent. 

At  a  meeting  of  the  Association  it  was  found  that 
all  the  messengers  were  not  of  one  mind  in  this  matter, 

and  so  for  two  days  "  X.\\q\  stood  against  our  coming  to 
any  vote  upon  it  lest  our  want  of  union  therein  should 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      183 

give   an   advantage   to   our  adversaries  "'     But  on  the 
third  day, 

Mr.  Stillman,  who  had  been  against  our  coming  to  a  vote, 
brought  in  the  following  paper,  which  was  unanimously  adopted: 
(i)  "That  the  mind  of  the  Association  respecting  giving  or 
not  giving  certificates,  be  taken  by  written  vote,  in  order  to  con- 
fine the  difference  which  subsists  among  us  on  this  matter,  in 
the  Association. 

(2)  "  That  those  Churches  that  agree  to  neglect  the  law  for  the 
future  shall,  in  a  spirit  of  meekness,  plead  as  the  reason,  that 
they  cannot  in  Conscience  countenance  any  human  laws  that 
interfere  in  the  management  of  the  kingdom  of  Christ,  which  is 
not  of  this  world. 

(3)  "  That  the  Churches  which  think  it  expedient  to  give  cer- 
tificates for  the  present,  be  advised  by  letter  how  many  are  of 
a  contrary  mind,  and  be  desired  to  consider  the  matter  against 
the  next  Association,  and  to  unite  with  their  brethren  if  pos- 
sible. 

(4)  "That  the  Churches  allow  each  other  entire  liberty,  with- 
out any  hard  thoughts  one  of  another. 

(5)  "That  all  the  Churches  which  shall  be  called  to  suffer 
through  the  year,  shall  transmit  an  account  of  such  sufferings 
to  their  agent,  to  be  made  use  of  by  him  as  may  be  thought  best 
to  subserve  the  common  cause. 

(6)  "  That  our  true  state,  with  what  we  have  transacted  at  this 
Association,  be  sent  to  our  agents  in  England,  and  their  opin- 
ion be  requested  by  the  next  meeting  of  the  Churches. 

(7)  ' '  That  if  any  are  called  to  suffer,  their  sister  churches  be 
appealed  to,  to  assist  them  in  their  trouble." 

When  we  came  to  act  upon  these  articles  there  appeared 
thirty-four  elders  and  brethren  against  giving  any  more  certifi- 
cates, six  for  it,  and  three  at  a  loss  how  to  vote. 

For  myself  I  wonder  that  not  more  than  three  did 
not  know  how  to  act,  and  that  no  more  than  twice  three 
did  not  vote  in  favor  of  this  certificate  business  ;  for 


184  NEW  ENCxLAND'S  struggles 

well  they  knew  that  if  they  refused  certificates  and  re- 
fused to  pay  the  ministerial  rates,  seizure  of  their  goods, 
or  imprisonment,  or  both,  would  be  sure  to  follow.  The 
only  explanation  of  their  determination  thus  to  resist  as 
it  were  the  authority  of  the  government,  is  found  in  the 
fact,  that  having  for  so  many  years  sought  in  every  way, 
but  in  vain,  to  secure  equal  religious  liberty,  while  at 
the  same  time  lixing  under  a  charter  which  guaranteed 
to  the  "loving  subjects  of  his  Majesty"  exemption 
from  "fines,  forfeitures,  or  other  incapacities,"  even  to 
those  who  "do  not  agree  in  the  Congregational  way," 
they  had  reached  the  point  of  desperation,  and  could 
not  but  practically  assert  their  religious  independence. 
At  the  Association  Mr.  Backus  presented  an  "  Appeal 
to  the  Public,"  a  part  of  which  he  read  to  them.  It  was 
voted  that  it  be  examined  by  the  Committee,  and  then 
published,  which  was  afterward  done  in  a  pamphlet  of 
sixty-two  pages.  In  section  third,  he  gives  five  reasons 
for  refusing  the  giving  of  certificates : 

(i)  Because  to  give  certificates  implies  an  acknowledgment 
that  the  civil  rulers  have  a  right  to  set  up  one  religious  sect  above 
another  ;  which  they  have  not. 

(2)  Because  civil  rulers  are  not  representatives  in  religious 
matters,  and  therefore  have  no  right  to  impose  religious  taxes. 

(3)  Because  such  a  practice  emboldens  the  actors  therein  to 
assume  God's  prerogative,  and  to  judge  the  hearts  of  those  who 
put  not  into  their  mouths. 

(4)  Because  the  church  is  presented  as  a  chaste  virgin  to  Christ, 
and  to  place  her  trust  and  love  upon  any  others  for  temporal 
support,  is  playing  the  harlot,  and  so  the  wav  to  destroy  all  re- 
ligion.     Hos.  2  :  5. 

(5)  Because  the  practice  above-said  tends  to  envy,  hypocrisy, 
and  confusion,  and  so  to  the  ruin  of  civil  society. 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      1 85 

A  Declaration  of  Religious  Independence,  truly ! 
We  may  well  imagine  that  it  required  not  much  less 
courage,  nor  was  deserving  of  little  less  honor,  to  sign 
this  than  it  did  for  some  others  to  sign  another  "  Decla- 
ration," some  three  years  later. 

As  we  have  seen,  some  Baptists  thought  that  Mr. 
Backus  and  his  friends  were  going  too  far  in  the  way 
of  resistance,  and  were  willing  for  the  sake  of  peace 
to  comply  with  existing  laws.  This  was  discouraging 
to  the  Baptist  agent,  for  he  felt  that  if  all  were  united 
in  refusing  certificates  and  would  suffer  for  a  time  the 
consequences,  they  would  the  sooner  achieve  their  re- 
ligious liberty.  And  so  at  a  later  date  his  feelings  found 
utterance  in  these  words  : 

I  should  have  fainted  long  ago  had  I  not  believed  that  wherein 
men  dealt  proudly,  Ciod  was  above  them.  And  he  fixed  a  per- 
suasion on  my  soul  that  if  we  faithfully  improved  the  advantage 
he  gave  us,  rulers  would  be  forced  to  give  up  their  tyrannical 
power  over  the  Church  of  God  and  the  consciences  of  men.  A 
large  part  of  my  good  friends  here  rather  wished  than  believed 
we  should  obtain  so  great  a  blessing,  and  therefore  have  often 
been  clogs  instead  of  helps  in  this  great  work.  And  my  mis- 
takes and  imperfections  in  acting  therein  have  been  so  many 
and  great,  that  instead  of  wondering  at  others'  fears  at  my  at- 
tempts for  liberty,  1  may  well  wonder  that  1  was  not  confounded 
long  ago.  .  .  I  speak  before  Him  who  will  judge  all  ;  if  a  per- 
suasion of  duty  has  not  been  my  greatest  motive,  I  know  not 
what  has.     Oh,  that  mine  was  more  single  therein  ! 

As  late  as  1791  Mr.  Backus  was  obliged  to  say  :  "  I 
know  not  of  one  of  our  churches,  especially  in  Massa- 
chusetts, which  is  entirely  free  of  the  evil  of  giv)ng  in 
a  list  of  their  Society  to  their  oppressors." 


l86  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

V.    THE    BAPTIST    AGENT's    MLSSIOX    TO    THE    FIRST    CON- 
TINENTAL   CONGRESS. 

Perhaps  the  most  noted  act  of  Isaac  Backus,  in  his 
endeavors  for  religious  freedom,  was  his  going  by  spe- 
cial commission  to  Philadelphia,  in  1774,  to  plead  for 
religious  liberty  before  the  first  Continental  Congress. 
We  quote  the  following  as  given  in  his  Diary  : 

September  7.  Went  over  to  Providence  to  Commencement. 
Met  with  Mr.  [John]  Gano,  of  New  York,  and  Mr.  \Vm.  Van 
Home,  of  South  Hampton,  in  Pennsylvania.  They,  with 
Messrs.  Manning  and  Hezekiah  Smith,  all  were  in  earnest  for 
me  to  go  to  the  Association  [in  Medfield]  and  also  to  the  Con- 
gress in  Philadelphia,  and  represented  that  now  was  the  most 
likely  time  to  obtain  our  religious  liberty  that  we  had  ever 
known.  I  had  many  objections  against  it,  but  when  I  awoke 
next  morning  the  religious  liberties  of  three  Colonies  or  more 
appeared  so  weighty  to  my  mind  that,  if  1  might  do  anything 
for  their  relief,  I  was  made  willing  to  do  it  and  leave  my  private 
concerns  to  him  that  orders  all  things. 

September  14.  The  Association  were  all  unanimous  that  I 
should  go  to  Philadelphia,  and  contributed  £,6.  10.  1 -'4  towards 
it. 

The  Association  gave  to  Mr.  Backus  the  following 
certificate  : 

To  the  Honorable  Delegates  of  the  several  Colonies  in  North 
America,  met  in  a  general  Congress  in  Philadelphia  : 

HoNOKABLE  Gkntlemen  :  As  the  Anti-pedobaptist  churches 
in  New  England  are  most  heartily  concerned  for  the  preserva- 
tion and  defence  of  the  rights  and  ])rivileges  of  this  country,  and 
are  deeply  affected  by  the  encroachments  upon  the  same  which 
have  lately  been  made  by  the  British  Parliament,  and  are  will- 
ing to  unite  with  our  dear  countrymen  vigorously  to  pursue  every 
prudent  measure  for  relief ;  so  we  would  beg  leave  to  say  that 
as  a  distinct  denomination  of  I'rotestants,  we  conceive   that  we 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      1 87 

have  an  equal  claim  to  charter  rights  with  the  rest  of  our  fellow- 
subjects,  and  yet  have  long  been  denied  the  full  and  free  enjoy- 
ment of  those  rights  as  to  the  support  of  religious  worship. 
Therefore  we,  the  Elders  and  brethren  in  twenty  Baptist  churches 
met  in  Association  at  Medfield,  twenty  miles  from  Boston,  Sept. 
14,  1774,  have  unanimously  chosen  and  sent  unto  you  the  rever- 
end and  beloved  Mr.  Isaac  Backus  as  our  agent  to  lay  our  case 
in  these  respects  before  you,  or  otherwise  to  use  all  the  prudent 
means  he  can  for  our  relief. 

John  Gano,  Moderator. 

Hezekiah  Smith,  Clerk. 

Mr.  Backus,  on  arriving  at  Philadelphia,  was  soon 
joined  by  President  Manning  and  others,  and,  upon 
consultation,  it  was  deemed  best  to  present  his  memo- 
rial or  plea  first  before  the  Massachusetts  Delegation. 
And  so  on  the  evening  of  October  14,  there  met  at 
Carpenter's  Hall,  Thomas  Cushing,  Samuel  Adams, 
John  Adams,  and  Robert  Treat  Paine,  Esqs.,  delegates 
from  Massachusetts,  also  Stephen  Hopkins  and  Samuel 
Ward,  of  Rhode  Island,  and  many  other  distinguished 
members  of  the  Congress,  together  with  some  promi- 
nent Quakers. 

"The  Conference,"  as  Elder  Backus  writes,  "was 
Opened  by  Mr.  Manning,  who  made  a  short  speech,  and 
then  read  the  memorial  which  we  had  drawn  up." 
From  this  memorial,  which  is  given  in  full  in  Dr. 
Hovey's  "Life  of  Backus,"  pp.  204-210,  we  extract 
the  opening  and  closing  sentences  : 

It  has  been  said  by  a  celebrated  writer  in  politics  that  but  two 
things  were  worth  contending  for — Religion  and  Liberty.  For 
the  latter  we  are  at  present  nobly  exerting  ourselves  through  all 
this  extensive  continent:  and  surely  no  one  whose  bosom  feels 
the  patriotic  glow  in  behalf  of  civil  liberty  can  remain  torpid  to 


1 88  NEW  ENCxLAND'S  struggles 

the  more  ennoblinij  llame  of  Religious  Freedom.  The  free  ex- 
ercise of  private  judgment  and  the  unalienable  rights  of  con- 
science are  of  too  high  a  rank  and  dignity  to  be  subjected  to  the 
decrees  of  councils  or  the  im])erfect  laws  of  fallible  legislators.  The 
merciful  Father  of  mankind  is  the  alone  Lord  of  conscience.  .  . 
As  the  Kingdom  of  Christ  is  not  of  this  world,  and  religion  is  a 
concern  between  God  and  the  soul  with  which  no  human  author- 
ity can  intermeddle  ;  consistently  with  the  principles  of  Chris- 
tianity and  according  to  the  dictates  of  Protestantism,  we  claim 
and  e.xpect  the  liberty  of  worshipping  God  according  to  our  con- 
sciences, not  being  obliged  to  support  a  ministry  we  cannot  at- 
tend, whilst  we  demean  ourselves  as  faithful  subjects.  These  we 
have  an  undoubted  right  to  as  men,  as  Christians,  and  by  charter 
as  inhabitants  of  Massachusetts  Bay. 

The  conference,  which  was  highly  spirited,  lasted 
about  four  hours,  and  "closed  with  their  promising  to 
do  what  thev  could  for  our  relief ;  though,  to  deter  us 
from  thinking  of  their  coming  upon  equal  footing  with 
us  as  to  religion,  John  Adams  at  one  time  said  we 
might  as  well  expect  a  change  in  the  solar  system  as  to 
expect  they  would  give  up  their  establishment  " — which 
establishment  he  nevertheless  at  one  time  afifirmed  was 
"  but  a  very  slender  one,  hardly  to  be  called  an  estab- 
lishment." Backus,  in  his  manuscript  "tlistory  of  the 
Warren  Association,"  says  that  "  one  of  them  plainly 
held  forth  at  Philadelphia  that  they  would  sooner  yield 
to  the  power  of  Britain  than  give  up  their  power  to 
support  religious  ministers  by  law,"  and  again,  that 
"one of  them  [probably  the  same  John  Adams  through- 
out] pleaded  conscience  for  supporting  religious  teachers 
by  tax."  Dr.  Ilovcy  remarks  that  "The  language  and 
bearing  of  the  delegates  from  Massachusetts  in  this 
conference  were  such  as  to  diminish  greatly  the  value 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH      1 89 

of  their  closing  promise."  Certain  it  is  that  they  prom- 
ised far  more  than  they  ever  sought  to  perform. 

One  good  result  of  this  agency  mission  was  the  ap- 
pointment by  the  Philadelphia  Baptist  Association,  then 
in  session,  of  "  a  [very  large]  committee  of  grievances 
to  correspond  with  ours  in  New  England  and -to  prose- 
cute such  measures  for  our  relief  as  they  should  judge 
best  "  (Backus).  This  committee  held  a  meeting  the 
day  after  the  conference,  at  which  it  was  resolved, 
"  That  this  Committee,  not  being  satisfied  with  the 
declaration  made  last  evening  by  the  delegates  from 
Massachusetts  Bay,  are  determined  to  pursue  every 
prudent  measure  to  obtain  a  full  and  complete  redress 
of  all  grievances  for  our  brethren  in  New  England." 
This  resolution,  as  also  a  copy  of  Backus'  "Memorial" 
and  of  his  "  Appeal  to  the  Public,"  were  placed  in  the 
hands  of  each  delegate.  ^ 

The  year  1774  was  fruitful  of  appeals  from  the  Bap- 
tist agent,  and  as  it  ended  with  one  made  to  the  Mas- 
sachusetts Provincial  Congress,  which  we  shall  pres- 
ently notice,  so  it  began  with  one  addressed  to  the 
General  Court.  This  letter  was  occasioned  by  the 
illegal  imprisonment  in  Northampton  jail  of  eighteen 
men  of  Warwick  who  belonged  to  the  Baptist  Society 
of  Royalston  ;  and  the  agent  closes  his  petition  with 
these  words  : 

This  is  therefore  to  beseech  your  Excellency  and  Honors,  as 
£^uardians  of  the  rights  of  your  people,  immediately  to  order  these 
men  to  be  set  at  liberty,  and  that  reparation  be  made  of  the 


'  See  more  fully  in  Backus'  "  History,"  Vol.  II,,  p.  200  seq.,  also  his 
MS.  "History  of  the  Warren  Association,"  and  especially  Dr.  Hovey's 
"Life  of  Backus,"  pp.  201-13,  349-51. 


igo  NEW  England's  vSTruggles 

damages  they  lia\e  sustained;  and  also  to  take  some  effectual 
methods,  as  in  your  wisdom  you  shall  see  fit,  that  for  the  future 
all  persons  within  this  Province  who  shall  demean  themselves 
as  good  members  of  civil  society  may  not  be  despoiled  of  the 
aforesaid  rights  under  a  pretence  of  supporting  religious  worship; 
but  that  all  persons  who  shall  presume  thus  to  encroach  upon 
the  rights  of  their  neighbors  may  be  punished  according  to  the 
demerit  of  their  crimes.  And  your  petitioner,  as  in  duty  bound, 
will  ever  pray.  Isaac  Backus. 

MiDDLEBOKo,  Feb.  15,  1774. 

On  the  first  article  of  the  above  petition  the  major- 
ity of  their  "  Honors  "  decided  adversely,  but  upon  the 
last  "they  framed,"  as  Backus  says,  "  an  act  more  favor- 
able than  they  had  done  before,  which  passed  both 
houses  ;  but  the  Court  was  prorogued  so  abruptly  that 
it  was  not  laid  before  the  Governor  ;  so  that  there  is  no 
act  in  force  at  all  in  the  Province  to  exempt  us  from 
taxes  to  their  ministers..  But  the  more  they  stir  about 
it  the  more  light  gains,  so  that  my  hope  of  deliverance 
in  due  time  increases." 

About  a  month  prior  to  writing  the  above  appeal, 
Mr.  Backus  sent  a  letter  to  the  eminent  patriot,  Samuel 
Adams  (a  deacon  of  the  Old  South  Chiuxh),  of  which 
the  closing  sentence  thus  reads  : 

I  hope,  sir,  that  you  will  gi\e  proof  both  to  the  Court  and  to 
the  world  that  you  regard  the  religious  as  well  as  the  civil  rights 
of  your  countrymen  ;  that  so  a  large  number  of  as  peaceable  peo- 
ple and  as  hearty  friends  to  their  Country  as  any  in  the  land, 
may  not  be  forced  to  carry  their  complaints  before  those  who 
would  be  glad  to  hear  that  the  Legislature  of  Massachusetts  deny 
to  their  fellow-servants  that  liberty  which  they  so  earnestly  insist 
upon  for  themselves. 

It  were   not   strange   if   !\Ir.    Backus   was  disappointed 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES— FINAL  TRIUMPH      I91 

at  the  stand  which  this  gentleman  took  a  few  months 
later  in  Philadelphia. 

Upon  the  return  of  the  Massachusetts  delegation  to 
New  England,  one  of  them  spread  the  report  that  Mr. 
Backus  went  to  Philadelphia  to  prevent  the  Colonies 
from  uniting  in  defense  of  their  liberties,  and  that  this 
attempt  proceeded  from  the  enemies  of  America.  The 
proceedings  of  that  conference  were  also  grossly  mis- 
represented. 

VI.    APPEAL    TO    THE    MASSACHUSETTS    PROVINCIAL    CON- 
GRESS. 

In  view  of  the  injurious  reports  indicated  in  our  last 
chapter,  Mr.  Backus,  with  the  advice  of  the  committee, 
drew  up  the  following  appeal — designing  to  show  by 
the  instances  of  oppression  adduced,  that  others  than 
"the  enemies  of  America"  had  good  and  sufficient 
reasons  to  memorialize  the  Continental  Congress  : 

To  the  honorable  Congress  of  the  Massachusetts  province,  con- 
vened at  Cambridge,  Nov.  22,   1774.^ 

Honored  Gentlemen  : — At  a  time  when  all  America  are 
alarmed  at  the  open  and  violent  attempts  that  have  been  made 
against  their  liberties,  it  affords  great  cause  of  joy  and  thankful- 
ness to  see  the  colonies  so  happily  united  to  defend  their  rights  ; 
and  particularly  that  their  late  Continental  Congress  have  been 
directed  into  measures  so  wise  and  salutary  for  obtaining  relief 
and  securing  our  future  liberties  ;  and  who  have  wisely  extended 
their  regards  to  the  rights  and  freedom  of  the  poor  Africans. 
Since  then  the  law  of  equity  has  prevailed  so  far,  we  hope  that  it 
will  move  this  honorable  assembly  to  pay  a  just  regard  to  their 
English  neighbors  and  brethren  at  home.    .   .    Civil  rulers  ought 

I  We  give  here  but  a  part  of  the  Petition.  The  whole  is  found  iu  Dr. 
Hovey's  "Life  of  Backus,"  pp.  215-221. 


192  NKW  ENGLAND'S   vSTRUGGLES 

undoubtedly  to  I)e  nursing  fathers  to  the  church,  by  reproof, 
exhortation,  and  their  own  good  and  Uberal  example,  as  well 
as  to  protect  and-  defend  her  against  injustice  and  oppres- 
sion ;  but  the  very  notion  of  taxing  all  to  support  any  religious 
denomination,  tends  to  bias  its  professors  against  all  such  as 
dissent  from  it  ;  and  so  to  deprive  them  of  having  unbiassed 
judges  ;  for  every  man  knows  that  so  much  money  as  he  can  get 
from  a  neighbor  to  support  his  minister,  so  much  he  saves  to 
himself.  As  we  are  fully  persuaded  that  there  is  not  a  man  in 
this  honorable  assembly,  but  what  if  he  had  suffered  a  quarter  so 
much  as  many  Baptists  have  from  interested  judges,  would  think 
it  high  time  to  be  in  earnest  to  have  this  pernicious  evil  removed. 
Two  thousand  dollars  will  not  make  good  the  damages  the  Bap- 
tists in  this  province  have  suffered  on  this  account,  within  these 
twelve  years,  as  we  can  make  it  appear  by  facts.    .   . 

After  the  Baptists  of  Ashfield  had  regularly  settled  a  minis- 
ter, a  Pedobaptist  minister  was  brought  in,  and  the  Baptists 
were  taxed  to  him  five  years  ;  and  then  they  petitioned  our  Leg- 
islature for  relief,  who  gave  them  encouragement  of  it,  yet  in  a 
few  days  made  a  law  that  cut  them  off  from  any  liberty  on  that 
account  at  all  ;  and  they  in  time  and  money,  spent  fifty  pounds 
lawful  currency  in  petitioning  for  the  removal  of  that  burden, 
and  could  get  no  help.  Then  our  united  churches  addressed 
the  Court  upon  it  ;  but  in  a  few  clays,  a  piece  dated  from  the 
place  where  the  Court  was  sitting,  was  published  in  the  Boston 
newspapers,  insinuating  that  the  Baptists  had  complained  without 
any  reason.  And  when  the  worthy  Mr.  Davis  (now  at  rest)  an- 
swered it  by  reciting  the  fact  of  Ashfield,  he  was  accused  in  a 
succeeding  paper,  as  we  ha\e  now  been,  of  being  an  enemy  to 
the  colonies.'  There  being  thus  no  hope  of  relief  here,  that 
Ashfield  law  was  sent  home  [to  England],  and  was  disannulled 
by  his  majesty  in  Council.  And  from  that  and  other  evidence, 
we  have  reason  to  think  that  an  ear  was  open  there  to  hear  our 

1  "  There  is  a  little  upstart  gentleman  [Mr.  Davis]  lately  settled  in  town, 
who  calls  himself  a  Baptist ;  and  the  youth  discovers  a  most  insufferable 
arrogance  and  self-sufficiency.  .  .  I  very  much  suspect  tliat  he  is  one  of 
those  deluded  young  men  who  are  employed  to  defame  and  blacken  the 
Colonies,  and  this  town  and  province  in  particular." 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH       193 

further  complaints  ;  but  we  have  ne\  er  sent  any  other,  as  we 
would  not  injure  the  general  cause  ;  and  hoped  that  at  last  our 
countrymen  would  be  brought  to  regard  our  rights.  But  alas  ! 
the  very  laws  that  have  been  made  about  us,  have  proved  to 
many  to  be  only  a  snare  to  get  away  our  money. 

The  Baptists  at  Montague  took  advice  of  a  lawyer  and  en- 
deavored to  comply  with  your  law,  according  to  his  direction  ; 
yet  they  were  taxed  and  strained  upon  ;  they  sued  for  relief  in 
your  courts  which  was  so  far  from  helping  them  that  it  took  away 
one  hundred  and  fifteen  dollars  more.  The  Baptists  in  Haverhill 
took  the  same  method,  but  the  case  was  turned  against  them 
which  cost  them  about  three  hundred  dollars.  A  Baptist  church 
was  regularly  formed  at  Gorham,  Me.,  in  1768,  and  Mr.  Joseph 
Moody  of  Scarborough,  a  member  of  it,  yearly  had  the  same 
certified  to  the  Assessors  of  his  town,  yet  still  he  has  been  taxed 
and  strained  upon  ;  and  when  he  petitioned  our  Legislature  last 
Winter  for  help,  we  are  credibly  informed  that  his  petition  was 
thrown  out,  because  Mr.  March,  the  representative  from  Scarbor- 
ough, said  :  There  was  Jio  Baptist  church  in  Gorham}  The 
Baptists  in  Warwick  complied  with  your  law,  yet  were  taxed  to 
the  parish  minister,  and  for  it  eighteen  of  them  were  imprisoned 
about  forty  miles  from  home  [in  Northampton]  in  the  extremity 
of  last  winter,  and  when  our  General  Court  were  addressed  upon 
it,  they  afforded  no  help.  The  Baptists  in  Chelmsford  complied 
with  your  law,  yet  they  were  taxed  ;  and  three  of  them  were  im- 
prisoned in  January,  1773  ;  and  when  they  sued  for  recompense, 
their  case  was  shifted  off  from  Court  to  Court,  till  it  has  cost 
above  a  hundred  dollars  ;  and  when  the  Superior  Court  at 
Charlestown,  last  April,  were  constrained  to  give  Nathan  Crosby 

1  Mr.  Moody,  from  whom  "  a  good  riding  beast "  had  been  seized  for  a 
tax  of  about  six  dollars,  presented  to  the  Assembly,  in  Boston,  in  1774,  a 
petition  of  which  the  following  is  an  extract :  "  As  the  case  of  your  peti- 
tioner somewhat  resembles  the  case  of  the  poor  man  who,  traveling  from 
Jerusalem  to  Jericho,  fell  among  evil  men,  your  petitioner  from  principles 
of  charity  and  equity,  doth  believe  that  you  will  not  pass  him  by  on  the 
other  side  of  the  way,  but  with  the  good  Samaritan,  show  pity,  bind  up  his 
wounds,  and  set  him  up  on  his  own  beast,  which  has  violently  been  taken 
away." 

R 


194  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

his  case,  as  having  been  taxed  and  imprisoned  unlawfully,  yet 
they  gave  him  but  three  pounds  damages  and  costs  of  Court  ; 
and  at  the  same  time  jr.dged  that  the  constable  who  carried  him 
to  prison  should  receive  costs  of  Crosby  for  so  doing.'  If  this  is 
unbiassed  judgment,  we  know  not  what  bias  means.  Must  we 
[be]  blamed  for  not  lying  still  and  thus  let  our  countrymen 
trample  upon  our  rights,  and  deny  us  the  very  liberty  that  they 
are  ready  to  take  up  arms  to  defend  for  themselves  ?  You  pro- 
fess to  exempt  us  from  taxes  to  your  worship,  and  yet  tax  us 
every  year,  (ireat  complaints  have  been  made  about  a  tax 
which  the  British  Parliament  laid  upon  paper  ;  but  you  require  a 
paper  tax  of  us  annually.  .  .  All  America  are  alarmed  at  the  tea 
tax,  though  if  they  please  they  can  avoid  it  by  not  buying  the 
tea  ;  but  we  have  no  such  liberty.  We  must  either  pay  the  little 
tax,-  or  else  your  people  appear,  e\  en  in  this  time  of  extremity, 
determined  to  lay  the  great  one  upon  us.  But  these  lines  are  to 
let  you  know  that  we  are  determined  not  to  pay  either  of  them  ; 
not  only  upon  your  principle  of  not  being  taxed  where  we  are 
not  represented,  but  also  because  we  dare  not  render  that  hom- 
age to  any  earthly  power  which  I  and  many  of  my  brethren  are 
fully  convinced  belongs  only  to  God.  We  cannot  give  in  the 
certificates  you  require  without  implicitly  allowing  to  men  that 
authority  which  we  believe  in  our  consciences  belongs  only  to 
God.  Here,  therefore,  we  claim  charter  rights,  liberty  of  con- 
science. And  if  any  still  deny  it  to  us,  they  must  answer  it  to 
him  who  has  said  "  With  what  measure  ye  mete  it  shall  be  meas- 
ured to  you  again." 

If  any  ask   what  we  would  have,   we  answer:  Only  allow  us 


1  Mr.  Crosby,  being  sick  when  the  officers  came  to  take  him,  entreated 
them  that  lie  might  remain  till  he  should  be  better  ;  but  one  of  the  com- 
pany said  that  if  they  took  him  out  and  he  died  in  their  hands  nobody 
would  hurt  them.  As  he  left  his  wife  and  children  in  tears,  some  of  the 
company  told  them  he  would  be  put  in  a  room  without  fire  where  he 
would  freeze  to  death.  He  and  several  others,  one  of  whom  was  an  old 
man  about  eighty-two  years  of  age,  were  committed  to  Concord  jail. 

■-'  The  required  annual  certificate  cost,  as  Backus  says,  "  four  pence  of 
our  money  which  is  three  pence  sterling ;  the  very  tax  upon  a  pound  of 
tea  that  brought  on  the  American  war." 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH     1 95 

freely  to  enjoy  the  religious  liberty  that  they  do  in  Boston,  and 
we  ask  no  more. 

We  remain  hearty  friends  to  our  country  and  ready  to  do  all  in 
our  power  for  its  general  welfare. 

Isaac  Backus. 
Agent  for  the  Baptist  Churches  in  this  Province. 
By  advice  of  their  Committee. 

Boston,  Dec.  2,  1774. 

After  some  smiling  and  considerable  opposition  the 
above  petition  was  read  in  the  provincial  Congress,  and, 
chiefly  through  the  influence  of  John  Adams,  who  "  was 
apprehensive  if  they  threw  out  the  petition  it  might 
cause  a  division  among  the  provinces,"  a  committee  was 
appointed  which  reported  that  they  were  no  ecclesiastical 
court  and  had  no  business  with  the  petition,  yet  recom- 
mended that  "  if  the  Baptists  were  oppressed  they  might 
apply  to  the  General  Court."  Accordingly  they  passed 
a  handsome  resolution  recommending 

to  the  Baptist  churches  that,  when  a  General  Assembly  shall  be 
convened  in  this  colony,  they  lay  the  real  grievances  of  said 
churches  before  the  same,  when  and  where  this  petition  will  most 
certainly  meet  with  all  that  attention  due  to  a  memorial  of  a  de- 
nomination of  Christians  so  well  disposed  to  the  public  weal  of 
their  country. 

By  order  of  the  Congress, 

John  Hancock,  President. 

In  reference  to  the  loyalty  of  the  Baptist  denomina- 
tion. Elder  Backus,  in  his  MS.  "  History  of  the  Warren 
Association,"  ^  remarks  that  "  in  the  fall  of  the  year 
1778  the  General  Assembly  of  the  Massachusetts  passed 
an  Act  to  exclude  all  men  from  returning  into  it  who 
had  gone  off,  whom  they  judged  to  be  enemies  of  their 

'  See  also  his  "  History,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  247. 


T96  NEW  England's  struggles 

counti")',  and  they  named  three  hundred  and  eleven  men 
as  such,  but  did  not  find  one  Baptist  among  them." 
Washington,  also,  in  his  letter  to  the  Committee  of  the 
Ignited  Baptists  of  Virginia,  bears  testim<jny  to  the  fact 
that  "the  religious  society  of  which  you  are  members 
have  been,  throughout  America,  uniformly  and  almost 
unanimously  the  firm  friends  to  civil  liberty  and  the  per- 
severing promoters  of  our  glorious  Revolution."  This 
patriotism  on  the  part  of  the  Baptist  fathers  is  the  more 
remarkable  because,  as  a  Pennsylvanian  once  wrote  to 
Isaac  Backus,  they  knew  that  were  this  country  sepa- 
rated from  England,  the  persecuted  Americans  could 
appeal  no  longer  to  the  Crown  for  relief,  but  only  "  to 
their  oppressors  and  accusers  "  at  home. 

We  herewith  give  one  or  two  instances  of  persecution 
other  than  those  above  mentioned  : 

In  Sturbridge  the  Baptists  were  made  to  suffer  se- 
verely, even  after  they  had  given  in  their  certificates. 
Several  of  them  were  imprisoned  at  Worcester.  A  val- 
uable cow  was  taken  from  one  man  for  a  tax  of  one 
pound,  one  shilling,  and  four  pence  ;  a  yoke  of  o.xen  from 
another  for  a  tax  of  less  than  five  dollars.  From  dif- 
ferent families  the  collectors  took  workmen's  tools  and 
household  goods  of  every  sort — skillets,  kettles,  pots, 
trammels,  andirons,  shovel  and  tongs,  warming  pans, 
pewter  plates,  spinning-wheels,  and  cradles.  The  col- 
lectors of  that  age  seem  to  have  been  especially  fond 
of  pewter  dishes.  "  They  stripped  the  shelves  of  pew- 
ter, of  such  as  had  it." 

In  the  "glorious  revival  year,"  1780  (when  more 
than  fifteen  hundred  persons  were  baptized  in  Massa- 
chusetts),   three    members    of    the    Baptist    church    in 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGI.es — FINAL    TRIUMPH     1 97 

Harvard  were  imprisoned  in  Worcester  at  great  per- 
sonal expense,  "and  no  recompense  was  ever  made 
therefor."  Two  or  three  years  previously  the  pastor  of 
this  church,  Dr.  Isaiah  Parker,  and  Elder  Samuel 
Fletcher,  of  Chelmsford,  were  called  to  baptize  at  Pep- 
perell,  where,  by  the  river's  side,  they  and  the  blessed 
ordinance  were  treated  with  the  utmost  indignity.  The 
facts  as  gathered  by  Elder  Backus  were  subsequently 
published,  which  led  to  a  protracted  newspaper  contro- 
versy, marked  on  one  side  at  least,  with  no  little  scur- 
rility. Shortly  after  this.  Elder  Backus  was  engaged  in 
other  bitter  controversies,  and  in  one  of  the  reviling 
pieces  which  were  published  in  the  Boston  papers 
against  him,  he  was  threatened  with  a  halter  and  the 
gallows. 

We  might  give  many  additional  instances  of  oppres- 
sion in  Massachusetts  and  elsewhere,  especially  in  Con- 
necticut, and  to  some  extent  in  New  Hampshire,  but  we 
forbear.  In  this  last  colony,  however,  as  Backus  says, 
"the  Congregational  denomination  were  never  exalted  so 
high  above  all  others  "  as  in  the  other  two  colonies,  and 
so  the  oppression  here  was  never  so  great.  Still,  until 
the  year  1679,  New  Hampshire  was  under  the  jurisdiction 
of  Massachusetts,  and  until  a  much  later  period  it  was 
under  its  influence,  and  this  simple  statement  is  suffi- 
cient to  show  that  the  Baptist  cause  in  the  Granite  State 
met  with  no  little  opposition  and  with  frequent  attempts 
at  "  suppression." 

We  subjoin  certain  oppressive  laws  passed  by  the 
General  Assembly  of  Connecticut  which  plainly  show 
what  Baptist  ministers  and  laymen,  itinerant  preachers 
and  Separatists,  had  to  encounter  and  to  suffer.      Certain 


198  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

features  in  these  laws  seem  to  have  reference  to  the 
Quakers  and  especial!}'  to  the  "  Rogerenes "  who,  in 
some  respects,  were  quite  as  fanatical  as  the  Quakers. 

In  the  first  code  of  Connecticut's  laws,  compiled  in 
1655,  all  persons  were  obliged  to  be  present  at  the  pub- 
lic worship  on  the  Lord's  Da)',  and  upon  all  days  of 
public  fasting  and  prayer  and  of  thanksgiving,  appointed 
by  civil  authority,  on  penalty  of  five  shillings  for  every 
instance  of  neglect. 

No  persons  within  this  Colony  shall  in  any  wise  embody  them- 
selves into  church  estate  without  consent  of  the  General  Court  and 
approbation  of  the  neighboring  churches. 

No  ministry  or  church  administration  shall  be  entertained  or 
attended  by  the  inhabitants  of  any  plantation  in  the  Colony,  dis- 
tinct and  separate  from,  and  in  opposition  to  that  which  was  openly 
and  publicly  oljserved  and  dispensed  by  the  approved  minister  of 
the  place,  unless  with  approbation  of  the  Court  and  neighboring 
churches,  save  under  a  penalty  of  five  pounds  for  every  breach  of 
this  act' 

In  May,  1723,  the  General  Assembly  passed  this  : 

Whereas,  Notwithstanding  the  liberty  allowed  by  law  l^oth  to 
ministers  and  people  to  worship  God  according  to  their  own  con- 
sciences, there  are  some  persons  who,  without  qualifying  them- 
selves as  the  law  directs  for  the  enjoyment  of  such  liberty,  pre- 
sume to  form  themselves  into  separate  meetings  and  neglect  to  at- 
tend on  any  public  worship  of  God  on  the  Lord's  day,  under 
colour  of  gathering  themselves  together  in  private  houses  for 
preaching  and  other  parts  of  divine  worship  ;  and  whereas,  Some 
persons  without  the  least  pretence  or  colour  of  being  ordained  in 
any  form  whatsoever  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  have  nevertheless 
presumed  to  gather  together  in  a  tumultuous  manner  and  take 
upon  them  to  administer  the  sacrament  of  baptism,  to  the  great 
abuse  and  profanation  of  that  liolv  ordinance  ; 

'   TruiiibuH's  "  History  of  Connecticut,"  Vol.  L,  p.  302. 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAI.  TRIUMPH    1 99 

Be  it  therefore  enacted  .  .  .  that  whatsoever  persons  shall  pre- 
sume on  the  Lord' s  day  to  neglect  the  public  worship  of  God  in 
some  lawful  congregation  and  form  themselves  into  separate  com- 
panies in  private  houses,  being  convicted  thereof  before  any  as- 
sistant or  Justice  of  the  peace,  shall  each  of  them,  for  every  such 
offence,  forfeit  the  sum  of  twenty  shillings. 

And  it  is  further  enacted  .  .  .  that  whatsoever  person,  not  being 
a'  lawfully  allowed  minister  of  the  Gospel,  shall  presume  to  pro- 
fane the  holy  sacraments  by  administering  or  making  a  show  of 
administering  them  to  any  person  or  persons  whatsoever,  and 
being  thereof  convicted  before  the  County  Court  in  such  county 
where  such  offence  shall  be  committed,  shall  incur  the  penalty  of 
ten  pounds  for  every  such  offence  and  suffer  corporal  punishment, 
by  whipping,  not  exceeding  thirty  stripes  for  each  offence. 

And  at  a  still  later  date,  in  1742,  it  was  enacted  that 

If  any  ordained  or  any  other  person  licensed  as  aforesaid  to 
preach,  shall  enter  into  any  parish  not  immediately  under  his 
charge,  and  shall  there  preach  and  exhort  the  people,  he  shall  be 
denied  and  excluded  the  benefit  of  any  law  of  this  colony,  made 
for  the  support  and  encouragement  of  the  gospel  ministry,  except 
such  ordained  or  licensed  person  shall  be  expressly  invited  and 
desired  to  enter  into  such  parish  and  there  to  preach  and  exhort 
the  people  by  the  settled  minister  and  the  major  part  of  the  church 
and  society  within  such  parish. 

And  be  it  further  enacted,  that  if  any  person  whatsoever  that  is 
not  a  settled  or  ordained  minister,  shall  go  into  any  parish  with- 
out the  express  desire  and  invitation  of  the  settled  minister  of  such 
parish,  if  any  there  be,  and  the  major  part  of  the  church  and  con- 
gregation within  such  parish,  and  publicly  teach  and  exhort  the 
people,  (he)  shall,  for  every  such  offence,  upon  complaint  thereof 
to  any  assistant  or  justice  of  the  peace,  be  bound  to  his  peaceable 
and  good  behaviour  until  the  next  County  Court  in  that  county 
where  the  offence  shall  be  committed,  by  said  assistant  or  justice 
of  the  peace,  in  the  penal  sum  of  one  hundred  pounds  lawful 
money,  that  he  or  they  will  not  offend  again  in  the  like  kind. 

And  it  is  further  enacted,  that  if  any  foreigner  or  stranger  [like 
George  Whitefield]  that  is  not  an  inhabitant  of  this  colony,  in- 


200  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

eluding  as  well  such  persons  as  have  no  ecclesiastical  character  or 
license  to  preach,  or  such  as  have  received  ordination  or  license  to 
preach,  by  any  association  or  presbytery,  shall  presume  to  preach, 
teach,  or  publicly  exhort  in  any  town  or  society  within  this  colony, 
without  the  desire  and  license  of  the  settled  minister  and  the 
major  part  of  the  church  and  inhabitants  of  such  town  or  society 
(provided  that  it  so  happen  that  there  be  no  settled  minister  there), 
that  every  such  preacher,  teacher,  or  exhorter,  shall  be  sent  as  a 
vagrant  person  by  warrant  from  any  assistant  or  justice  of  the 
peace,  from  constable  to  constable  out  of  the  bounds  of  this  colony. 

The  Assembly  in  October,  1743,  not  deeming  the  last 
law  severe  enough,  enacted  that 

If  any  such  foreigner  or  stranger,  after  having  been  transported 
out  of  the  bounds  of  the  colony,  should  return  again  to  preach  or 
exhort,  he  should  "be  bound  in  the  penal  sum  of  one  hundred 
pounds,  lawful  money,  to  his  peaceable  and  good  behaviour,  and 
that  he  will  not  offend  again  in  like  manner  ;  and  that  he  shall 
pay  down  the  cost  of  his  transportation."  ' 

Under  one  of  the  foregoing  laws,  Mr.  Samuel  Finley 
(afterward  president  of  the  College  of  New  Jersey), 
who  had  been  preaching  to  a  seceding  church  in  Milford, 
was  ordered  by  the  governor  "to  be  carried  from  con- 
stable to  constable,  and  from  one  town  to  another,  until 
he  should  be  conveyed  out  of  the  colony." 

It  is  not  to  be  wondered  at  that  about  this  time  (1745) 
Mr.  Stephen  Winthrop  wrote  from  London  to  his 
brother.  Governor  John  Winthrop,  of  Connecticut,  that 
"  Heere  is  great  complaint  against  vs  for  our  severetye 
against  Anabaptists.  It  doth  discourag  any  people  from 
coming  to  vs  for  fear  they  should  be  banished  if  they 
dissent  from  vs  in  opinion."^ 

'  TrumbuH's  "History  of  Connecticut,"  Vol.  II.,  37,  163,  174.  * 

'  We  are  much  pleased  to  record  in   this  connection,  the  testimony  of 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    20I 

Perhaps  no  single  occurrence  better  illustrates  the  op- 
pressive principles  and  spirit  of  the  Connecticut  author- 
ities in  early  times  than  does  the  expulsion  from  Yale 
College  of  the  two  Cleveland  brothers,  merely  for  their 
attending  and  taking  part  in  Separatists'  meetings. 

Sadly  interesting  too,  in  this  connection,  is  the  story 
of  the  trials  which  befell  Philemon  Robbins,  of  Bran- 
ford,  principally  for  preaching  on  one  occasion,  January 
6,  1742,  to  the  Baptist  Society  in  Wallingford,  an  ac- 
count of  which  trials  occupies  pp.  196-232  in  Vol.  II. 
of  Trumbull's  "  History." 

The  Separatists,  we  may  remark,  suffered  for  a  time 
more  than  did  the  Quakers,  or  Baptists,  or  Episcopa- 
lians ;  for  while  these  were  favored  with  certain  exemp- 
tion laws,  the  Separatists  had  no  escape  from  fines 
and  imprisonments.  Dr.  Trumbull,  in  Vol.  II.,  p.  233, 
gives  a  petition  to  the  Assembly  of  1748,  signed  by 
three  hundred  and  thirty  persons  who  were  Separatists, 
belonging  principally  to  the  counties  of  New  London 
and  Windham.  The  legislature,  however,  "rejected 
their  petition  and  granted  them  no  relief."  "Why 
these  people,"  adds  Dr.  Trumbull,  "should  be  treated 
worse  than  Quakers  and  Baptists,  while  they  were  loyal 
subjects,  devoutly  and  zealously  worshiped  God  in  their 
own  way,  and,  except  in  their  peculiarities,  were  many  of 
them  strict  in  morals,  peaceable  and  good  inhabitants,  I 
know  not." 

In   regard  to    Vermont,    Elder    Backus    felt    himself 

the  Quaker  historian,  Sewel,  that  the  above-named  "Gov.  Winthrop 
earnestly  dissuaded  the  shedding  of  blood."  It  is  not  strange  that  Roger 
Williams,  in  writing  to  this  governor,  should  say  that  he  "ever  honored 
and  loved  and  ever  shall  the  root  and  branches  of  youre  deare  name." 


202  NEW  England's  struggles 

obliged  to  speak  of  "  the  ministerial  tyranny  which  has 
been  carried  into  that  wilderness  from  the  States  of 
Connecticut  and  Massachusetts."  The  oppressive  rule 
of  the  "  Standing  Order  "  is,  we  think,  fairly  well  illus- 
trated in  the  following  extract  of  a  letter  written  by 
Elder  Elisha  Ransom  to  Elder  Backus,  March,  1795  : 

A  brother  living  in  Hartford,  in  Vermont,  belonging  to  Elder 
Drew's  church,  has  suffered  much  about  rates  from  another  de- 
nomination. He  was  first  carried  to  gaol,  and  then  came  out  by 
paying  the  money,  and  prosecuted  them  in  vain,  for  he  was  beat 
three  times.  1  cannot  ascertain  the  costs,  for  his  last  trial  was  the 
last  day  of  February  past,  but  it  is  supposed  that  his  costs  will  be 
above  fifty  pounds.  Five  petitions  were  carried  into  the  Vermont 
Assembly  last  fall,  with  more  than  two  hundred  signatures,  against 
the  certificate  law,  and  I  went  to  speak  for  them  ;  and  after  my 
averment  that  the  certificate  law  was  contrary  to  the  rights  of  man, 
Qf  conscience,  the  first,  third,  fourth,  and  seventh  articles  of  our 
constitution,  and  to  itself,  for  it  took  away  our  rights  and  then 
ofifered  to  sell  thein  back  to  us  for  a  certificate,  some  stretched 
their  mouths  ;  and  though  no  man  contradicted  me  in  one  argu- 
ment, yet  they  would  shut  their  eyes  and  say  they  could  not  see  it 
so.  I  had  many  great  friends  in  the  house,  but  not  a  majority. 
They  sent  out  a  committee  who  altered  the  law  much  for  the 
better,  if  any  law  could  be  good  of  that  kind,  which  was  that 
every  man  might  assert  his  own  sentiments  to  the  town  clerk,  and 
that  should  answer  ;  but  because  it  would  still  be  a  bad  law,  and  1 
would  not  thank  them  for  it,  and  none  of  our  friends  would 
acknowledge  it  as  a  favor,  it  fell  back  to  where  it  was  before. 
Only  we  have  this  to  comfort  us  :  the  Lord  reigneth,  and  their 
power  is  limited,  and  we  shall  have  no  more  affliction  than  is 
needful  for  us. 

In  1787  Dr.  (m.  d.)  Asaph  Fletcher  left  Massachu- 
setts for  Vermont,  where,  as  in  the  former  State,  he  la- 
bored earnestly  for  constitutional  freedom.  In  1789  he 
was  followed  by  Rev.  Aaron   Leland,  from   Bellingham, 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    203 

who  also  did  noble  service  for  religious  liberty.  Another 
Baptist  minister,  Ezra  Butler,  was  a  strong  champion  for 
equal  rights.  In  1 807,  when  religious  liberty  was  secured 
to  the  people  by  the  repealing  of  all  oppressive  statutes, 
Mr.  Leland  was  speaker  of  the  House,  and  Mr.  Butler 
was  a  member  of  the  Senate.  Subsequently  the  latter 
served  for  two  years  (1826-28)  as  governor,  and  the 
former  at  the  same  time  and  for  a  still  longer  period^ 
served  as  lieutenant-governor.^ 

By  way  of  contrast,  note  the  smallest  of  the  New 
England  States,  Rhode  Island,  at  this  time.  The  three 
adjoining  colonies,  Plymouth,  Massachusetts,  and  Con- 
necticut, while  not  esteeming  its  people  or  its  principles 
very  highly,  yet  eagerly  and  persistently  sought  to  se- 
cure a  large  slice,  or  even  the  whole  thereof.'  These  col- 
onies were  ever  inimical  to  its  welfare,  and  Massachusetts, 
in  fact,  sought  to  starve  it  out  of  existence.*  The  royal 
commissioners  were  not  far  from  right  when  they  wrote 
to  his  Majesty  that  "this  colony  which  admits  of  all  re- 
ligions, even  Quakers  and  Gennerallists,  was  begun  by 
such  as  the  Massachusetts  would  not  suffer  to  live  among 
them,  and  is  generally  hated  by  the  other  colonyes  who 
endeavoured  severall  wayes  to  suppresse  them."  The  In- 
dians, as   Roger  Williams  complained,   could  obtain  an 


'  In  regard  to  these  Vermont  champions  of  freedom,  see  more  fully  in  Dr. 
Armitage's  "  History  of  the  Baptists,"  p.  809  ;  and  for  a  brief  memoir  of 
Dr.  Fletcher,  by  his  son,  Hon.  Richard  Fletcher,  see  Benedict's  "  History 
of  the  Baptists,"  p.  488.  An  interesting  account  of  Leland  and  of  Butler 
is  given  in  Vol.  VI.  of  Sprague's  "  Annals  of  the  American  Pulpit." 

■^  S.  G.  Arnold's  "History  of  Rhode  Island,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  118. 

^The  same.  Vol.  I.,  p.  268  ;  and  Backus'  "  History,"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  240, 
252.  See  also  at  the  close  of  Section  VII.,  what  Backus  says  of  the 
power  and  disposition  of  the  beast. 


204  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

abundant  supply  of  arms  from  the  Dutch  and  from  the 
perfidious  English,  yet  the  Rhode  Islanders,  though  dwell- 
ing among  the  thickest  of  the  barbarians,  and  though, 
if  spared,  would  be  a  hedge  and  a  defense  to  the  Mas- 
sachusetts people,  could  nevertheless  obtain  no  means  of 
defense  for  themselves,  but  were  seemingly  "  devoted  to 
be  the  Indian  shambles  and  massacres."  "  I  pray,"  said 
Roger  Williams,  when  pleading  for  "  fower  or  more 
barrells  of  powder  yearely,  with  some  convenient  pro- 
portion of  artillerie,"  "  I  pray  your  equall  and  favorable 
reflection  upon  that  your  law  which  prohibits  us  to  buy 
of  you  all  meanes  of  our  necessary  defence  of  our  lives 
and  families,  yea  in  this  most  bloudy  and  massacring 
time."  "  I  think  it  probable  that  if  the  three  "  erroneous 
persons,  being  strangers,"  who  paid  a  short  visit  to 
Lynn  in  the  summer  of  165 1,  had  come  from  some 
other  region  than  Rhode  Island,  they  would  have  met 
with  a  less  hostile  reception.  Into  this  State  the  colonies 
sent  all  their  discordant  and  disaffected  peojiles,  and  it 
became  a  refuge  for  outcasts  of  every  kind  from  all 
quarters  of  the  world.      Jeremy  Belknap "  says  : 

The  Anabaptists,  fined  and  banished,  flocked  to  that  new  settle- 
ment, and  many  Quakers  also  took  refuge  there  ;  so  that  Rhode 
Island  was  in  those  days  looked  upon  as  the  drain  or  sink  of  New- 
England  ;  and  it  has  been  said  that  if  "any  man  had  lost  his  re- 
ligion, he  might  find  it  there,  among  such  a  general  muster  of 
opinionists. "  Notwithstanding  this  invective  it  is  much  to  the 
honor  of  that  government  that  there  never  was  an  instance  of  per- 
secution countenanced  by  them. 

With  all  these  disturbing  elements  above  referred  to, 


'Hutchinson's  "Collection  of  Papers,"  pp.  277,  281, 
2  "  History  of  New  Hampshire,"  Vol.  I.,  p.    80. 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES FINAL    TRIUMPH     205 

and  with  consequent  internal  dissensions,  together  with 
the  ever  troublesome  "  salvages  '"  or  barbarians,  and  with 
no  protection  or  sympathy  from  the  United  Colonies,  it 
is  not  surprising  that  in  its  early  history  it  saw  troublous 
times.  But  no  Rhode  Islander  need  be  ashamed  of 
its  history  so  long  as  he  can  boastingly  say  that,  of 
all  the  New  England  States  it  alone  has  furnished  no 
bloody  and  cruel  acts  of  religious  persecution  for  the 
historian  to  record. 

The  government  of  Rhode  Island  has  in  respect  to 
'*  religious  concernments "  ever  been  faithful  to  the 
charter  of  1663,  which  Dr.  Clarke  secured  from  Charles 
II.      This  charter  declares  that 

Noe  person  within  the  sayd  Colonye  at  any  tyme 
hereafter  shall  bee  anywise  molested,  punished,  dis- 
quieted, or  called  in  question  for  any  difference  in  opin- 
ione  in  matters  of  religion  which  do  not  actually  disturb 
the  civill  peace  of  our  sayd  Colonye  ;  but  that  all  and 
everye  person  and  persons  may  from  tyme  to  tyme,  and 
at  all  tymes  hereafter,  freelye  and  fullye  have  and  enjoy 
his  and  theire  own  judgments  throughout  the  tract  of 
land  hereafter  mentioned  ;  they  behaving  themselves 
peaceablie  and  quietlie,  and  not  using  this  libertie  to 
lycentiousnesse  and  profanenesse. 

In  1680  the  Governor  of  Rhode  Island,  in  answer  to 
the  inquiries  of  the  English  Board  of  Trade,  says  : 

But  there  are  others  [than  Baptists  and  Quakers]  of  divers  per- 
suasions and  principles,  all  which  together  with  them  enjoy  their 
liberties  accordinge  to  his  Majesties  gracious  charter  to  them 
granted,  wherein  all  people  in  our  CoUoney  are  to  enjoy  their 
liberty  of  conscience,  provided  their  liberty  extend  not  to  licen- 
tiousness .  .  .  We  leave  every  Man  to  walke  as  God  shall  per- 
suade their  hartes,  and  doe  actively  and  passively  yield  obedience 

S 


206  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

to  the  civill  Magistrate,  and  doe  not  actively  disturb  the  civill 
peace,  and  live  peaceably  in  the  Corporation  as  our  Charter 
requires,  and  have  liberty  to  frequent  any  meetings  of  worship 
for  their  better  instruction  and  information.' 

Reference  has  already  been  made  in  these  pages  (see 
p.  82,)  to  the  tolerant  treatment  which  the  Quakers  re- 
ceived in  Rhode  Island,  when  in  every  other  colony  they 
were  subjected  to  all  manner  of  persecution. 

In  1684  the  Jews,  who  could  find  no  home  elsewhere, 
received  assurance  from  the  Rhode  Island  Assembly 
that  they  might  expect  as  good  protection  here  as  any 
other  resident  foreigners,  being  obedient  to  the  laws.- 

In  accordance  also  with  the  spirit  of  the  charter,  the 
authorities  passed  in  1716  (several  years  before  the 
magistrates  of  Massachusetts  thought  of  an  exemption 
law)  an  act  to  pre\'ent 

The  making  use  of  the  civil  power  for  the  enforcing 
of  a  maintenance  for  their  respective  ministers  [so  that] 
what  maintenance  or  salary  may  be  thought  needful  or 
necessary  by  any  of  the  churches,  congregations,  or 
societies  of  people  now  inhabiting  or  that  hereafter  may 
inhabit  within  any  part  of  this  government,  for  the  sup- 
port of  their  or  either  of  their  minister  or  ministers, 
may  be  raised  by  a  free  contribution,  and  no  other  ways.'' 

I"or  further  reference  to  this  matter  of  religious 
liberty  in  the  charter  and  government  of  Rhode  Island, 
see  on  the  page  following  the  title-page,  Williams'  utter- 
ance in  regard  to  "  soul  freedom,"  and  Dr.  Clarke's 
petition  for  the  charter,  also  the  closing  part  of  the 
code   of    1647    (quoted   on   p.  65),  "Let    the    Lambs  of 


'  Arnold's  "  History  of  Rhode  Island,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  490. 
Mbid,  Vol.  L,  p.  478.  ''Ibid,  Vol.  II  ,  p.  58. 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    207 

the   Most   High  walk  in  this  colonic  without  Molesta- 
tion," etc/ 

Note. — As  frequent  references  have  been  made  in 
previous  pages  (176,  192)  to  the  sufferings  of  the 
oppressed  Baptists  in  Ashfield,  perhaps  our  readers  may 
like  to  see  how  their  opponents  sought  in  this  particular 
case  to  justify  their  conduct.  This  can  be  found  in 
Vol.  IV.  of  the  "  Acts  and  Resolves  of  the  Province  of 
Massachusetts  Bay."  This  volume  has  some  points  of 
special  interest  to  Baptists,  containing,  as  it  does,  the 
masterly  "Memorial  and  Remonstrance"  of  John  Proctor 
(pp.  122-126),- the  petitions  for  relief  from  taxation  of 

'  "  Lamds  of  the  Most  High,"  is  the  reading  found  in  2  Mass.  Hist.  Coll., 
VII.,  79,  "copied  from  the  original"  in  the  office  of  the  Secretary  of 
State  of  Rhode  Island,  yet  most  Rhode  Island  Historians  give  it  :  "  Saints 
of  the  Most  High."  Such  also  is  the  reading  in  the  copy  belonging  to 
the  State  Library  in  Providence. 

A  similar  discrepancy  is  found  in  Dr.  Clarke's  petition  for  the  charter, 
referred  to  above.  As  usually  quoted  it  reads  :  '  and  that  among  English 
subjects.^'  But  Mr.  Arnold  and  Secretary  John  R.  Bartlett,  in  his  R.  I. 
Coll.  Rec.  give  it :  "  among  English  spirits  "  ,•  which  as  being  to  us  the 
"more  difficult  reading,"  is  probably  correct.  The  original  is  found  in 
the  British  State  Paper  Office  in  London. 

Still  another  discrepancy  has  demanded  our  attention.  This  has  refer- 
ence to  Samuel  Myles  (noticed  on  p.  109),  whether  he  was  the  son  (as 
stated  by  Benedict,  p.  408,  and  others)  or  grandson  (as  stated  by  Backus, 
I.,  406)  of  Elder  John  Myles.  The  former  statement  is  certainly  cor- 
rect. Elder  Myles  died  in  1683,  while  his  son  Samuel  was  in  Cambridge 
College.  He  was  born  1664,  graduated  as  "Samuel  Mylesius,  Mr.,"  in 
1684,  and  first  officiated  at  King's  Chapel,  July  i,  1689.  He  was  pre- 
ceded in  the  pastorate  for  a  short  time  by  Robert  Ratcliffe. 

Some  one,  I  think,  has  said  that  the  eleventh  commandment  for  the 
historian  is,  or  should  be,  verify  your  quotations.  Would  that  this  had 
always  been  done,  or  would,  indeed,  that  it  could  always  be  done — 
beyond  the  possibility  of  dispute  ! 

2  In  the  "Acts  and  Resolves"  it  is  stated  that  Mr.  Proctor's  first  pe- 
tition was  "sent  down  for  concurrence,"  while  in  his  second  petition 
(see  p.  165)  he  says  it  "was  not  sent  down."     The  explanation  is  that 


2o8  NEW  England's  struggles 

Ebenezer  Smith,  Chilcab  Smith,  John  Blackmer,  and 
others  of  Ashficld,'  in  the  years  1768-70  (pp.  1 036-7  ; 
also  found  in  pari  in  Ur.  Hovey's  "  Life  of  Backus,"  p.  346 
et  seq.),  and  the  petition  in  their  behalf  to  the  Lords 
Commissioners  of  Trade  and  Plantations,  by  Ur.  Samuel 
Stennctt,  of  England  ;  also  the  piquant  responses  by 
the  proprietors  of  Ashfield  to  the  petition  of  the  Ash- 
field  Baptists,  and  by  the  General  Court  to  the  petition 
(noted  on  p.  1 76)  of  Messrs.  Stillman,  Smith,  and  Davis, 
pp.  1039-43.  We  give  .some  extracts  from  this  last 
response  : 

April  25,   1771. 

The  Committee  upon  the  Petition  of  the  Rev''.  Mr.  Stillman, 
Smith,  and  Davis,  have  attended  the  service  assigned  them  and 
very  fully  heard  the  parties,  beg  leave  to  report  : 

V\  That  if  said  Reverend  Gentlemen  had  in  their  Petition 
treated  the  General  Court  with  more  good  manners  and  truth  [the 
courteous  Stillman  !],  they  would  have  cast  no  blemish  upon  their 
sacred  character  by  so  doing. 

2ndiy_  There  is  an  essential  difference  between  persons  being 
taxed  where  they  are  not  represented,  therefore  against  their  wills, 
and  being  taxed  when  represented,  and  when  what  is  taxed  is  only 
in  consequence  of  what  was  the  very  condition  of  their  grant, 
which  nobody  compelled  them  to  enter  into,  but  was  entirely 
voluntary  on  their  part.  .  .  The  petitioners  complain  that  their 
estates  were  taken  from  them  against  their  wills  ;  and  very  right  it 
should  be  so  when  their  wills  and  their  consciences  are  against 
doing  what  they  engaged  to  do,  and  what  if  they  had  not  engaged 
to  do,  they  would   never  have  had   any  grant  of  them   at  all.    .    . 


the  House  did  not  act  upon  it,  if  sent  down,  till  after  the  lapse  of  nearly 
five  months,  or  several  weeks  after  the  writing  of  the  second  petition. 
In  fact  the  House  acted  upon  the  second  petition  two  days  before  acting 
on  the  first. 

'The  petition  of  May  24,  1768,  has  eighteen  signatures,  and  it  states 
that  "There  is  u))ward  of  ninety  Soals  that  Frequently  attend  our  meet- 
ings on  Lord's  day," 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH    209 

There  never  was  a  law  relating  either  to  Churchmen,  Baptists,  or 
Quakers,  exempting  them  from  paying  taxes  considered  as  Pro- 
prietors or  Grantees  in  a  new  plantation.  The  laws  relative  to 
them  respect  only  such  rates  as  are  assessed  by  towns,  district,  or 
parish,  and  this  distinction  is  very  material  and  very  rational,  and 
not  anti-Christian.  The  end  and  design  of  the  grant  of  waste 
lands  by  the  General  Court  is  this,  that  they  shall  be  improved 
that  which  was  meer  nature  should  be  cultivated  and  improved  for 
the  increase  of  his  Majesty's  good  subjects  in  this  Province,  their 
trade,  produce,  and  business.  This  is  quite  agreeable  to  the  de- 
sign of  King  William  and  Queen  Mary  in  their  grant  of  the  char- 
ter ;  but  how  can  this  be  effected  when  perhaps  half  in  every  new 
granted  township  refuse  complying  with  the  conditions  of  the 
grant,  pleading  conscience,  which  conditions  [one  of  which  was  to 
settle  a  learned  orthodox  minister  there,  and  build  and  finish  a 
convenient  meeting-house  for  the  public  worship  of  God]  they  were 
perfectly  acquainted  with  when  they  accepted  the  grant.  In  new 
townships  the  grantees,  when  all  unite  to  perform  the  conditions, 
go  thro'  a  vast  many  hardships  and  encounter  a  thousand  difficul- 
ties before  the  same  are  performed  ;  to  excuse  any  under  any  pre- 
tence whatsoever,  therefore,  would  be  unreasonable  and  cruel  to 
the  rest,  if  they  were  obliged  to  do  their  own  duty  and  the  duty  of 
their  delinquent  brethren.  Is  this  conscience  ?  Or  is  it  con- 
science that  a  man  should  not  be  obliged  to  do  what  he  hath 
solemnly  and  voluntarily  covenanted  to  do  ?  Now  what  other 
method  can  be  devised,  but  to  sell  the  lands  of  those  who  consci- 
entiously say  they  ivill  not  be  as  good  as  their  word,  or  keep  their 
covenant  thd  it  be  so  greatly  to  the  prejudice  of  the  public  ?  Is  it 
not  more  favorable  to  these  delinquents,  that  part  of  their  land  be 
sold  in  fulfillment  of  their  engagements  than  the  whole  should  re- 
vert to  the  Province  ?  which  is  the  very  tenure  of  their  grant  and 
by  which  they  hold  their  lands.  Your  committee  find  that  in  the 
sale  of  these  lands  there  was  no  unfairness,  but  everything  was 
quite  fair,  quite  neighborly,  and  quite  legal.  Upon  the  whole, 
your  committee,  tho'  desirous  that  everything  might  be  done  that 
can  be  desired  for  persons  of  every  denomination  of  Christians 
whereby  they  may  worship  God  in  their  own  way  and  according  to 
their  consciences  without  any  let  or  molestation  whatsoever,  yet 


2IO  NKW  KNGLAND's    STRUGGLES 

for  the  reasons  above-mentioned   and   many  more   that   might  be 
offered,  it  is  our  opinion  that  said  Petition  be  dismissed. 

W.  Braitli:,  by  order. ' 

In  Council,  Read  and  accepted,  and  (Ordered  that  said  Petition 
be  dismissed  accordingly. 

In  the  House  of  Representatives,  Read  and  Non-concurred,  and 
Ordered  that  .  .  .  shall  be  a  committee  to  bring  in  a  Bill  for  re- 
pealing and  making  void  an  "Act  for  erecting  the  new  Plantation 
called  Huntstown  in  the  County  of  Hampshire  into  a  town  by  the 
name  of  Ashfield."      In  Council,   Read  and  non-concurred. 

Hut  his  majesty  did  not  agree  with  the  Council  in  this 
matter  (see  p.  178).  He  probably  knew  the  purport  and 
design  of  King  William's  Charter.  Governor  Hutchin- 
son also  showed  some  favor  to  the  Baptist  society  after 
he  had  "  happened  to  look  and  find  that  the  word  Sup- 
port was  not  in  the  original  grant  of  those  lands."  This 
whole  Ashfield  matter  is  fully  narrated  in  Vol.  H.,  149 
ct  sc(/.,  of  Backus'  "  History,"  who  moreover  avers  that 
the  account  which  he  gives  is  "  carefully  taken  from  our 
printed  laws,  journals  of  the  House  of  Representatives, 
and  other  writings  and  testimonies  ;  and  our  opponents 
are  welcome  to  point  out  any  mistakes  therein  if  they 
can." 

VII.  THE  agent's  petition  TO  THE  GENERAL  COURT  OF 
MASSACHUSETTS. 

To  the  Honorable  General  Assembl)'  of  the  Colony 

^  The  writer  of  the  above  report  is  William  Bratde,  for  many  years  a 
member  of  the  Governor's  Council. 

The  BratUes  of  Boston,  were  a  family  of  much  distinction.  Rev.  Wil- 
liam Brattle,  the  father  of  the  above,  was  an  instructoi-  in  the  college,  and 
afterward  became  the  minister  of  the  Cambridge  Churcli.  The  old  Brat- 
tle Street  Church  in  Boston,  as  well  as  the  street  itself,  commemorates 
the  name  of  a  brother,  Thomas  Bratde. 


SUBSEQUENT    STRUGGI.es FINAL   TRIUMPH     211 

of  the  Massachusetts  Bay,  assembled  at  Watertown, 
Sept.  20,  1775. 

The  Memorial  and  petition  '  of  Isaac  Backus,  agent 
for  the  Baptist  churches  in  said  colony,  humbly  sheweth  : 

That  whereas  the  honorable  Congress  of  this  Province 
did,  on  the  ninth  day  of  December  last,  pass  a  resolve 
wherein  •'  They  recommend  to  the  Baptist  churches  that 
when  a  General  Assembly  shall  be  convened  in  this  col- 
ony, they  lay  the  real  grievances  of  said  churches  before 
the  same  when  and  where  their  petition  will  most  cer- 
tainly meet  with  all  that  attention  due  to  a  memorial  of 
a  denomination  of  citizens  so  well  disposed  to  the  pub- 
lic weal  of  their  country."  And  as  such  an  assembly 
is  now  convened,  we  humbly  represent  that  our  real 
grievances  are.  That  we  as  well  as  our  fathers  have 
from  time  to  time  been  taxed  on  religious  accounts 
where  we  are  not  represented,  and  when  we  have  sued 
for  our  rights  our  causes  have  been  tried  by  interested 
judges. 

That  the  representatives  in  former  assemblies  as  well 
as  the  present  were  elected  by  virtue  only  of  civil  and 
worldly  qualifications,  is  a  truth  so  evident  that  we  pre- 
sume it  need  not  be  proved  to  this  assembly  ;  and  for  a 
civil  legesliture  to  impose  religious  taxes  is,  we  conceive, 
a  power  their  constituents  never  had  to  give,  and  is  there- 
fore a  going  entirely  out  of  their  jurisdiction.  That  the 
legesliture  of  this  province  have  made  laws  to  determine 
how  religious  ministers  shall  be  chosen  and  settled,  and 
so  compell  all  the  inhabitants  to  support  them,  is  a 
known  fact  ;  and  all  the  acts  that  they  have  ever  made 
to  exempt  baptists  from  taxes  to  such  ministers  have 
been  framed   in  such  a  manner  as  that  they  must  im- 


'  ,So  far  as  we  are  aware,  this  petition  has  never  before  been  published, 
save  a  few  paragraphs  in  Backus'  "History."  The  manuscript  from 
which  we  quote  may  be  the  original  or  a  copy  therefrom.  This  petition 
was  first  read  to  the  Association,  and  it  was  voted  unanimously  that  it 
should  be  presented. 


212  NKW  KXf;i,AND'S    STRUGGLEvS 

plicitl)'  give  in  to  the  assemblies'  right  to  impose  such 
taxes,  or  else  they  rarely  could  enjoy  any  exemption 
therefrom.'  And  when  the  baptists  have  done  so,  they 
yet  have  often  been  taxed  to  pedobaptist  ministers,  and 
if  they  have  sued  for  recompense  their  causes  have  been 
tried  before  pedobaptist  judges  and  jurors  who  know 
that  so  much  money  as  they  can  get  from  their  neigh- 
bors for  their  own  ministers,  so  much  they  save  to  them- 
selves. Yea,  the  very  lawyers  that  are  employed  to 
plead  our  causes  are  interested  against  our  true  freedom, 
because  they  know  if  that  was  once  granted,  a  great 
source  of  their  own  gain  would  be  stopt.  A  glaring  in- 
stance of  these  biases  we  experienced  between  the  pass- 
ing of  the  cruel  Port  Bill  and  its  arrival  at  Boston  ;  for 
in  that  juncture  the  case  of  mr.  Nathan  Crosby  was 
tried  at  Charlestown,  when  a  lawyer  he  employed,  while  he 
was  pleading  the  case,  cautioned  the  jury  against  giving 
him  too  much  damages  ;  the  judges  did  the  same,  and 
the  effect  was  such  that  they  allowed  Crosby  but  three 
pounds  damages  for  his  being  taxed  to  the  pedobaptist 
minister  of  Chelmsford,  contrary  to  your  own  law,  and 
being  imprisoned  for  it  four  days  ;  yea,  and  the  court 
who  found  that  he  was  unlawfully  taxed,  yet  judged  that 
the  constable  who  carried  him  to  gaol  should  recover 
costs  of  Crosby  for  so  doing  out  of  the  said  three 
pounds. 

This  is  but  a  sketch  of  the  evidence  we  have  of  our 
being  taxed  and  judged  unconstitutionally  ;  and  we  beg 
leave  to  observe  that  'tis  evident  to  us  that  our  rulers 
have  been  drawn  into  and  carried  along  this  unconstitu- 
tional way  by  a  method  of  arguing  which  is  far  from 
being  honorable,  viz.,  Begging  the  question  ;  for  we  hold 
as  fully  as  our  opponents  do  that  it  i^  the  duty  of  those 
who  are  taught  to  communicate  unto  him  that  teacheth 
in  all  good  things.  But  the  question  between  us  is, 
whether  that  dutv  ouirht  to  be  enforced  with   the  magis- 


'   For  llie  different  exeinplive  acts,  see  Appendix  F. 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    213 

trate's  sword  or  not  ?  It  is  a  most  certain  duty  for  men 
daily  or  continually  to  offer  praise  to  our  great  Creator, 
and  both  of  these  duties  are  called  sacrifices  to  God  in 
Heb.  13  :  15-17,  and  why  have  not  civil  rulers  as  good 
right  to  order  men  to  gaol  for  not  praying  daily  in  their 
families  as  they  have  for  not  giving  money  to  religious 
ministers  ?  But  the  constant  methods  of  the  advocates 
of  the  scheme  we  oppose  has  been  to  quote  Scriptures 
that  prove  it  to  be  the  duty  of  people  to  communicate  to 
their  teachers,  and  then  take  it  for  granted  that  civil 
rulers  ought  to  enforce  that  duty  by  the  sword  without 
any  proof  at  all  ;  yea,  so  far  from  it,  that  under  the  legal 
dispensation  where  God  himself  prescribed  the  exact 
proportion  of  what  the  people  were  to  give,  yet  none 
but  persons  of  the  worst  characters  attempted  to  take  it 
by  force  (i  Sam.  2  :  12,  16  ;  Mica  3  :  5-9).  How  daring 
then  must  it  be  for  any  to  do  it  for  Christ's  ministers, 
who  says.  My  kingdom  is  not  of  this  zvorld ! 

When  Scripture  fails,  recourse  is  often  had  to  the 
good  fathers  of  this  country  who  established  the  congre- 
gational way  of  worship,  and  from  thence  'tis  argued 
that  rulers  still  ought  to  support  it.  Permit  me  there- 
fore to  mention  a  few  words  of  the  steps  they  took  to 
establish  that  way.  There  was  nothing  of  it  in  the  first 
nor  last  charter  of  their  colony,  but  in  both  the  assem- 
bly were  limitted  not  to  make  any  laws  contrary  to  the 
laws  of  England  ;  but  when  the  General  Court  met  at 
Boston,  May  14,  1634,  they  enacted,  "That  the  former 
oath  of  freemen  shall  be  revoked  so  far  as  it  is  disso- 
nant from  the  oath  of  freemen  here  underwritten,  and 
that  those  that  received  the  former  oath  shall  stand 
bound  no  further  thereby  to  any  intent  or  purpose  than 
this  new  oath  tyes  those  that  take  the  same."  Their 
former  oath  bound  them  to  submit  to  "  all  such  laws, 
orders,  sentences,  and  decrees  as  should  be  lazvfully 
made  and  published  "  by  this  government  ;  but  this  act 
absolved  the  freemen  from  that  article  and  bound  them 
to  submit  "to  the  loJwlesomc  laws  and  orders  made  and 


214  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

established  by  the  same."  And  at  their  generall  assem- 
bly, Mar.  4,  1635,  they  say,  "This  court  doth  intreat  of 
the  brethren  and  elders  of  every  church  within  this 
jurisdiction,  that  they  will  consult  and  advise  of  one  uni- 
fonn  order  of  discipline  in  the  chnrches,  agreeable  to  the 
Scriptures,  and  then  consider  how  far  the  magistrates 
are  bound  to  interpose  for  the  preservation  of  that  uni- 
formity." And  at  the  same  time  passed  an  act  to  oblige 
every  man  that  should  reside  within  their  jurisdiction 
six  months  of  or  above  1 6  years  of  age,  servants  as  well 
as  others,  to  take  this  new  oath  upon  pain  of  being 
"punished  at  the  discretion  of  the  court."  And  mr. 
Roger  Williams,  for  opposing  this  oath  and  refusing  sub- 
mission to  such  a  power,  was  the  ne.xt  fall  banished  out 
of  this  colony.  In  those  times  none  were  allowed  to  be 
voters  in  civil  affairs  but  members  in  full  communion  in 
their  churches,  and  at  a  general  court  at  Boston,  Sept. 
6,  1638,  they  say,  "  This  court  taking  into  consideration 
the  necessity  of  an  equal  contribution  to  all  common 
charges  in  towns,  and  observing  that  the  chief  occasion 
of  defect  herein  ariseth  from  hence  that  many  of  those 
who  are  not  freemen  nor  members  of  any  church,  do 
take  ad\Mntage  thereby  to  withdraw  their  help  in  such 
voluntary  contributions  as  are  in  use  ;  It  is  therefore 
hereby  declared  that  every  inhabitant  in  any  town  is 
lyable  to  contribute  to  all  charges  both  in  church  and 
commonwealth  whereof  he  doth  or  may  receive  benefit  ; 
and  withal  it  is  also  ordered  that  ever)-  inhabitant  who 
shall  not  voluntarily  contribute  proportionably  to  his 
ability  with  other  freemen  of  the  same  town  to  all  com- 
mon charges,  as  well  for  upholding  the  ordinances  of  the 
churches  as  otherwise,  shall  be  compelled  thereto,  by 
assessment  and  distress,  to  be  levied  by  the  constable  or 
other  officer  of  the  town,  as  in  other  cases." 

These  extracts  I  carefully  took  with  my  own  hand 
from  the  province  records.  After  this  last  act  began  to 
operate,  mr.  Briscoe,  of  Watertown,  wrote  a  piece  against 
it  ;  but  the  consequence  was  this  : 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLEvS — FINAL   TRIUMPH    215 

"At  a  quarter  Court  at  Boston,  Mar.  7,  1642-3,  mr. 
Nathaniel  Briscoe,  for  certain  mutenous  speeches  and 
writings,  was  fined  /^lo." 

"John  Stowers,  for  reading  of  divers  offensive  pas- 
sages (before  company)  out  of  a  book,  against  the  offi- 
cers and  church  of  Watertown,  and  for  making  dis- 
turbance there,  was  fined  40s."  And  the  ministers  of 
that  day  said  :  "  But  as  for  his  arguments  they  were  not 
worth  answering,  for  he  that  shall  deny  the  exerting  of 
the  civil  power  to  provide  for  the  comfortable  subsistence 
of  them  that  preach  the  gospel  /s  rather  to  be  taught  by 
a  cudgel  thau  argioneut. 

These  were  the  methods  that  introduced  into  New 
England  the  practice  of  supporting  religious  ministers  by 
assessment  and  distress,  and  we  cannot  find  as  it  has 
any  better  foundation  than  the  cudgel  to  this  day.  And 
as  to  that,  we  have  read  of  a  pagan  minister  that  loved 
the  wages  of  unrigJiteoiisness  who  once  belaboured  his 
beast  with  such  an  instrument,  but  was  rebuked  for  his 
iniquity ;  the  dumb  ass,  speaking  zvitJi  man' s  voice,  for- 
bad the  madness  of  the  prophet.  How  then  came  this 
cudgillijig  way  of  teaching  ever  to  get  footing  among 
Christians  !  ^ 

We  mean  not  to  reflect  upon  any  man  or  men  what- 
soever but  only  to  set  that  practice  in  its  true  light,  and 
shall  only  add  that  our  last  charter  gave  the  rulers  no 
warrant  to  force  any  man  to  support  congregational 
ministers,  but  the  first  law  they  made  for  that  purpose 
after  it  was  received,  was  in  the  same  year  (1692)  the 
colony  was  so  infatuated  with  the  notion  of  witchcraft  as 
to  take  away  a  number  of  lives  unj  ustly ;  and  by  the 
next  time  the  assembly  met  they  found  that  Boston  re- 

'  We  are  informed  that  after  the  reading  of  this  memorial  Major  Haw- 
ley  rose,  and  among  other  things,  "told  the  Assembly  that  though  the 
language  of  the  memorial  might  not  be  so  polished  and  polite  as  some 
others  would  have  used,  yet  the  matters  it  contained  were  weighty,  and 
the  Baptists  had  undoubtedly  been  injuriously  treated."  He  moved, 
therefore,  at  some  future  day  appointed,  the  petition  be  taken  up  for  con- 
sideration, which  motion  was  agreed  to. 


2l6  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

fused  to  receive  this  taxing  law ;  therefore  they  added 
another  in  which  they  say,  "  Nothing  herein  contained  is 
intended  or  shall  be  extended  to  abiidgc  the  inhabitants 
of  Boston  of  their  accustomed  way  and  practice  as  to 
the  choice  and  maintenance  of  their  ministers  "  ;  which 
shows  that  they  intended  to  abridge  others  of  the  liberty 
that  Boston  has  always  claimed  ;  and  how  much  better 
was  this  than  it  was  for  governor  Hutchinson  to  say, 
"  There  must  be  an  abridgement  of  what  are  called  Eng- 
lish liberties  !  " 

We  beseech  this  honorable  assembly  to  take  these 
matters  into  their  wise  and  serious  consideration  before 
Him  who  has  said,  "  With  what  measure  ye  mete,  it 
shall  be  measured  to  you  again."  Is  not  all  America 
now  appealing  to  heaven  against  the  injustice  of  being 
taxed  where  they  are  not  represented,  and  against  being 
judged  by  men  who  are  interested  in  getting  away  our 
money  ?  And  will  heaven  approve  of  your  doing  the 
same  tiling  to  your  fellow-servants  ?     No,  surely. 

And  here  we  would  note  that  it  has  been  well  said  : 
'•  As  I  derive  not  my  property  from  the  laws,  but  only 
the  security  thereof,  the  legesliture  cannot  properly  re- 
sume it  as  they  never  gave  it,  unless  my  possession 
thereof  interfere  with  the  public  good,  and  then  not 
without  an  equivalent."  But  have  not  the  legesliture  of 
this  province  often  taken  away  property  without  any 
equivalent  at  all  .^  The  above  law  was  to  compel  every 
inhabitant  to  support  church  ordinances  whereof  he  doth 
or  may  receive  benefit  ;  but  how  contrary  is  this  to  the 
law  of  Heaven  }  That  says,  Let  him  that  is  taught 
communicate  to  him  that  teacheth,  but  the  same  law- 
giver required  his  ministers  not  to  carry  away  so  much 
as  the  dust  of  a  house  or  city  that  rejected  them  (Gal. 
6:6;  Matt.  lo  :  13,  14),  which  law  was  for  the  seventy 
as  well  as  the  twelve  (Luke  10  :  8-1  i).  I'uither,  the 
Lord  hath  ordained  that  they  who  preach  the  gospel 
should  live  of  the  gospe/,  of  what  is  produced  by  the 
gospel  means  of  instruction,  exhortation,  and  good  ex- 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    217 

ample  ;  and  rulers  as  well  as  others  ought  doubtless  to 
do  their  part  herein,  yea,  to  lead  in  the  same  and  be 
nursing  fathers  to  the  church  of  Christ.  But  how  far  is 
this  from  taking  away  the  property  of  one  and  giving  it 
to  another  without  his  consent  ?  In  short  we  believe 
Christ  has  made  laws  enough  to  support  his  ministers, 
and  we  desire  that  every  gospel  method  may  be  used  to 
enforce  them  by  every  person  in  their  several  stations. 
But  what  is  said  of  those  who  add  to  his  laws  .''  and  we 
pray  your  honors  not  to  forget  how  great  an  addition 
thereto  is  couched  under  the  word  juay}  Christ's  laws 
plainly  require  those  who  do  receive  benefit  to  commu- 
nicate to  such  as  are  instrumental  thereof  ;  but  for  leges- 
litors  to  impower  the  majority  of  every  town  or  parish 
to  say  who  shall  be  ministers  of  it,  and  to  compel  their 
neighbors  that  do  not  chuse  him,  and  are  not  benefited 
by  him,  yet  to  support  him,  only  because  they  may  hear 
him  if  they  will ;  is  not  this  a  great  and  terrible  addition 
to  the  divine  law  ! 

^  The  possibilities  of  this  word  may  are  well  illustrated  by  the  colloquy 
(given  in  Rev.  F.  Denison's  "Historical  Notes")  between  Dr.  Benjamin 
Lord,  of  Norwich,  Conn.,  and  a  Mr.  Collier,  who  was  a  barber.  The 
doctor  at  one  time  volunteered  to  collect  his  own  rates,  and  on  visiting 
Mr.  Collier,  the  following  dialogue  ensued  : 

Dr.  L.  —  "Mr.  Collier,  I  have  a  small  bill  against  you." 

Mr.  C. — "A  bill  against  me?  for  what?" 

Dr.  L. — "Why,  your  rate  for  my  preaching." 

Mr.  C. — "For  your  preaching?  Why,  I  have  never  heard  you.  I 
don't  recollect  that  I  ever  entered  your  meeting-house." 

Dr.  L. — "That's  not  my  fault;  the  meeting-house  was  open." 

Mr.  C. — "  Very  well.  But  look  here  :  I  have  a  small  bill  against  you, 
Dr.  Lord." 

Dr.  L. — "  A  bill  against  me  ?  for  what  ?  " 

Mr.  C. — "Why,  for  barbering. " 

Dr.  L. — "  For  barbering?     I  never  before  entered  your  shop." 

Mr.  C. — "That's  not  my  fault.  Dr.  Lord;  my  shop  was  open." 

To  a  newspaper  controversialist  who  asserted  that  the  taxing  of  all  to 
support  religious  worship  is  done  on  the  same  principle  as  taxing  for  pub- 
lic schools  which  children  may  attend.  Elder  Backus  gives  this  curt 
reply  :  "Now  all  men  of  sense  know  that  religious  worship  is  as  distinct 
a  thing  from  learning  to  read  and  write  as  it  is  from  learning  the  trade  of 
a  weaver  or  a  shoemaker ;  therefore  it  is  to  be  feared  that  he  and  many 
others  have  no  better  notions  about  th"  gospel  ministry  than  of  a  trade  to 
get  a  living  by. ' ' 

T 


2i8  NEW  England's  struggle.s 

What  temporal  property  any  church  or  person  is  law- 
fully possessed  of,  we  believe  they  ought  peaceably  to 
enjoy,  and  civil  rulers  ought  to  punish  any  that  invade 
or  encroach  upon  their  rights  ;  and  we  thankfully  ac- 
knowledge that  we  have  enjoyed  many  and  great  favours 
in  these  respects  under  the  government  that  has  been 
set  up  ox'cr  us,  and  would  ever  honor  our  rulers  therefor  ; 
but  for  them  to  force  away  our  property  for  religious 
ministers,  appears  to  us  to  be  a  sphere  that  they  have 
no  right  to  act  in,  neither  from  the  law  of  nature,  Scrip- 
ture, nor  the  charter  of  this  province  ;  and,  therefore, 
we  cannot  in  conscience  yield  so  much  as  an  implicit 
assent  to  such  a  power.  And  we  appeal  to  your  con- 
sciences whether  we  can  give  in  the  annual  certificates 
required  by  a  late  law  of  this  province,  and  pay  the  four 
penny  tax  thereon  which  it  requires  in  every  parish, 
without  tacitly  acknowledging  a  power  in  our  civil  leges- 
liture  to  tax  us  on  religious  accounts.  Yet  onl}'  because 
we  refrained  last  year  from  yielding  that  acknowledg- 
ment, many  members  of  our  Baptist  societies  who  have 
been  exempted  as  such  for  fifteen  or  twenty  years  past, 
are  taxed  to  ministers  that  they  are  in  no  way  indebted 
to  any  more  than  congregationalists  are  to  episcopalians. 

Your  honors  need  not  to  be  informed  that  the  present 
contest  betwixt  this  and  our  mother  country,  is  not 
whether  the  British  Parliament  has  a  right  to  impose 
taxes  or  not,  but  about  their  extending  that  power 
beyond  its  just  limits  ;  neither  is  it  .so  much  upon  the 
greatness  of  the  taxes  already  laid  on  America,  as  about 
the  acknowledgment  of  their  right  to  tax  us  at  all  ;  and 
the  difficulty  is  the  same  with  us.  We  have  no  desire 
of  representing  this  government  as  the  worst  of  an)- 
who  have  imposed  religious  ta.xes.  We  fully  believe  the 
contrary ;  yet  as  we  are  persuaded  that  an  entire  free- 
dom from  being  taxetl  by  civil  rulers  to  religious  wor- 
ship, is  not  a  mere  favour  from  any  man  or  men  in  the 
world,  but  a  right  and  i^ropert)'  granted  us  by  God  who 
commands   us   to   stand  fast  in  it,  we  have  not  onl}'  the 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    219 

same  reason  to  refuse  an  acknowledgment  of  such  a  tax- 
ing power  here,  as  America  has  the  above  said  power, 
but  also  according  to  our  present  light  we  should  wrong 
our  consciences  in  allowing  that  power  to  men  which  we 
believe  belongs  only  to  God.  And  as  we  understand 
that  this  honorable  assembly  was  called  by  advice  of  the 
Continental  Congress  in  order  to  revive  the  course  of 
law  and  government  in  this  colony  as  near  to  the  spirit 
of  the  Charter  as  may  be,  we  earnestly  intreat  your 
Honors  to  consider  that  equal  liberty  of  conscience  is 
plain  in  the  Charter,  and  therefore  that  you  would  not 
revive  any  law  that  tends  to  abridge  any  inhabitant  in 
this  colony  of  that  important  right,  but  that  all  persons 
who  shall  attempt  to  incroach  thereupon  may  be  pun- 
ished according  to  the  demerit  of  their  crimes,  and  your 
honors  petitioners  as  in  duty  bound  shall  ever  pray. 

Isaac  Backus,  agent  for 
the   Baptist   Churches  in  this  colony,  by  advice  of  their 
Committee. 

The  above  petition  was  assigned  to  a  committee  of 
seven,  three  of  whom  were  Baptists.  After  much  dis- 
cussion they  at  length  reported  to  the  House  "  that  the 
Baptists  have  leave  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  the  redress  of 
grievances  complained  of  in  the  said  memorial."  Some 
of  the  assembly  censured  the  memorial  for  various 
reasons,  while  Major  Hawley  commended  it  greatly,  and 
told  the  Court  that  the  established  religion  of  this 
colony  was  not  worth  a  groat,  and  wished  it  might  fall 
to  the  ground.^     Finally,  it  was  voted  that  Dr.  Fletcher, 

*  This  "  Major  Hawley  "  is  Joseph  Hawley,  of  Northampton,  for  many 
years  one  of  the  most  influential  members  of  the  House,  and  whom 
Hutchinson  speaks  of  as  the  "eminent  and  highly  esteemed  lawyer  of 
the  county  of  Hampshire."  He  was  a  leader  in  the  opposition  to  Jona- 
than Edwards,  but  afterward  made  a  public  and  deeply  penitent  confes- 
sion of  wrongdoing  in  the  matter,  which  may  be  seen  in  Vol.  I.,  pp.  40- 
44,  of  Edwards'  works. 


220  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

one  of  the  Baptist  members  of  the  Committee,  "  have 
liberty  to  bring  in  a  bill  for  the  redress  of  such  griev- 
ances as  he  apprehends  the  Baptists  labor  under."  This 
bill,  which  was  at  length  brought  in,  was  read  once,  but 
the  House  took  no  further  notice  of  it.  Backus  says 
the  General  Assembly  slipped  this  memorial  "  away  out 
of  sight,  without  granting  any  relief  at  all  to  the  Bap- 
tists," nor  was  "the  least  inclination  discovered  in  the 
ruling  party  here  to  pay  any  regard  to  these  pleas  for 
liberty  of  conscience." 

In  the  same  year  that  the  foregoing  petition  was  pre- 
sented, the  Warren  Association  desired  the  Agent  and 
Committee  to  draw  up  a  letter  to  all  the  Baptist  societies 
on  this  continent.  In  response  to  this  the  Agent  wrote 
an  appeal. 

"  To  all  Chi-jstian  people  in  the  American  Colonies, 
and  especially  to  those  who  are  of  the  Baptist  denomi- 
nation."    The  opening  sentence  reads  thus  : 

While  the  united  inhabitants  of  this  vast  continent  are  appeal- 
ing to  heaven  against  the  open  attempts  that  have  been  made 
against  their  liberties,  it  is  surely  of  great  importance  that  we  all 
regard  that  law  of  heaven  :  Make  straight  paths  for  your  feet. 
And  can  we  do  so  if  we  are  not  as  earnest  for  the  removal  of 
oppression  among  ourselves  as  we  are  to  repel  its  encroachments 
from  abroad  ? 

Subsequently  he  goes  on  to  say  that  : 

Many  elders  and  brethren  at  a  meeting  in  Warren,  September 
13.  1775.  desired  us  the  subscribers  [Isaac  Backus,  Nathan 
Plimpton,  Asaph  Fletcher]  to  write  to  all  the  societies  of  our  de- 
nomination in  the  American  Colonies  upon  the  subject  of  religious 
liberty  and  to  signify  to  them  that  a  general  meeting  of  delegates 
from  our  societies  in  each  colony  we  think  is  very  expedient,  as 
soon  as  may  be,  to  consult  upon  the  best  means  and  methods  for 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    221 

obtaining  and  establishing  full  and  equal  religious  liberty  through- 
out this  continent,  and  to  promote  the  general  welfare  of  all,  so 
that  truth  and  peace  may  prevail  and  glory  dwell  in  our  land  ; 
and  to  request  our  friends  in  each  colony  to  communicate  their 
sentiments  of  the  design  and  of  the  time  and  place  of  meeting, 
with  all  convenient  speed.    .   . 

That  we  may  all  in  our  stations  bear  our  proper  witness  unto  the 
truth  and  against  the  corruptions  and  oppressions  of  the  present 
day  is  the  hearty  desire  and  prayer  of  your  servants  for  Jesus' 
sake. 

In  seeming  response  to  the  above  proposition  for  a 
general  meeting,  a  paper  was  ere  long  received  from  the 
Southern  governments  proposing  a  Continental  Asso- 
ciation, to  be  held  in  Virginia  the  17th  of  October 
(1776),  to  seek  for  universal  liberty.  Our  brethren  felt 
no  "  want  of  a  hearty  desire  and  endeavors  to  promote 
that  cause,"  yet  on  accoimt  of  "these  difficult  times" 
did  not  deem  the  meeting  at  that  time  to  be  practicable. 

In  the  year  of  the  Declaration  of .  Independence,  the 
Association  meeting  at  Grafton  sent  forth  a  circular 
letter,  of  which  we  give  a  few  sentences  : 

We  live  in  a  day  of  as  great  changes  and  events  as  perhaps 
were  ever  known  in  this  nation.  A  time  when  the  principles  and 
nature  of  liberty  and  govern. ment  have  been  very  closely  ex- 
amined into,  and  wherein  there  appears  the  greatest  encourage- 
ment of  obtaining  full  and  universal  liberty  of  conscience  that  ever 
has  since  the  first  rise  of  the  man  of  sin.  And  how  can  we 
answer  it  either  to  posterity  or  to  our  great  and  impartial  Judge, 
if  we  neglect  a  right  and  faithful  improvement  of  this  important 
season  ? 

As  one  means  of  faithful  improvement,  it  was  recom- 
mended that  each  Baptist  Society  in  New  England 
should  take  a  "  census  of  families  and  of  the  number  of 
souls  in  each  family  who  are  desirous  of  having  equal 


222  NEW  England's  struggles 

religious  liberty  established,  that  it  may  be  known  how 
many  are  against  the  ecclesiastical  oppressions  which 
have  long  been  practiced  in  this  country." 

In  1777  an  "Address  to  the  People  of  New  Eng- 
land "  was  read  by  Isaac  Backus  before  the  Association 
meeting  at  his  own  church  in  Middleborough,  which  was 
printed  in  the  Minutes  as  its  circular  letter/  In  this 
letter  he  says  : 

The  divine  oracles  inform  us  of  a  gradual  victory 
which  the  church  of  Christ  shall  obtain  over  the  beast, 
and  over  his  image,  and  over  his  mark,  and  over  the 
number  of  his  name,  7vhich  is  the  number  of  a  man. 
And  also  that  the  beast  loas,  and  is  not,  and j'et  is. 
Now,  what  can  this  mean  but  the  use  of  beastly  force  to 
support  religion  by  human  lazo  /  //  ivas,  in  the  times 
of  popish  darkness  and  t}Tanny,  it  is  not,  in  a  land  of 
gospel  light  and  liberty,  and  yet  it  is,  still  exercising 
both  deceit  and  cruelty.  When  England  rejected  the 
pope,  and  set  up  a  temporal  prince  as  head  of  the 
church,  our  fathers  found  that  this  image  exercised  all 
the  p07ver  of  the  first  beast ;  which  caused  them  to  flee 
into  this  land  for  religious  liberty. 

He  then  goes  on  to  speak  of  the  ruling  party  in  this 
country  : 

"  Who  were  not  willing  that  any  .should  buy  or  sell  that 


'  At  this  time  Elder  Backus  had  just  finished  the  first  part  of  his  great 
historical  work.  And  so  at  this  Association  a  vote  of  thanks  was  given 
him  "  for  the  indefatigable  pains  he  hath  taken  to  collect  and  publish  the 
first  volume  of  a  History  of  the  Baptists  from  the  first  settlement  in  New 
England;  and  he  is  requested  to  go  on  with  that  work."  This  great 
work  by  our  earliest  Baptist  historian,  and  the  full  and  exceedingly  valu- 
able notes  added  thereto  by  Prof  David  Weston,  a  native  of  Middlebor- 
ough, are  a  memorial  of  l)oth  these  brethren  which  will  outlast  any  monu- 
ment of  stone  or  bronze  which  can  be  reared  to  their  names. 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    223 

would  not  receive  a  mark  of  subjection  to  secular  force 
in  religious  affairs,"  and  that  "  many  of  our  societies 
have  been  taxed  to  them  even  since  the  beginning  of 
this  memorable  year,  1777,  for  no  other  reason  than 
because  we  have  refused  to  receive  a  mark  in  our  hands 
of  subjection  to  that  power." 

One  reason  for  preparing  and  printing  the  above  cir- 
cular was  owing  to  the  reports  of  oppression  and  dis- 
tress which  were  brought  in  from  different  churches. 
The  account  from  Medfield  Church  and  Society  states 
that  "  all  but  six  of  their  members  are  now  taxed  to  a 
minister  that  they  dissent  from  and  do  not  go  to  hear." 

At  the  next  Association,  in  1778,  Mr.  Backus  pre- 
sented another  paper  on  the  subject  of  religious  liberty, 
and  he  was  unanimously  requested  to  publish  the  same. 
An  outline  of  this  paper,  which  appeared  in  pamphlet 
form  and  which,  from  certain  peculiar  circumstances 
subsequently  arising,  proved  to  be  a  most  telling  docu- 
ment, is  given  in  Backus'  "  History,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  222,  and 
in  Dr.  Hovey's  "  Life  of  Backus,"  pp.  234-238.  The 
pamphlet  provoked  much  newspaper  controversy,  and  by 
one  of  Backus'  opponents  it  was  declared  to  be  "  only  a 
compound  of  ignorance,  impudence,  and  abuse." 

VIII.    MATTERS    TOUCHING    THE    FORMATION    OF    THE 
STATE    CONSTITUTION. 

We  subjoin  a  petition,  "To  the  Honorable  General 
Court  of  the  State  of  Mas.sachusetts  Bay  to  be  convened 
at  Boston,  the  27th  of  May,  1778,"  a  hundred  copies  of 
which  were  printed  and  dispersed,  and  signed  by  "a 
large  number  from  various  denominations."  The  copy 
we  have  seen,  which  was  circulated  mainly  in  the  south- 
eastern part  of  this  State,  contains  about  seven  hundred 


224  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

and  forty  pen  signatures.'  The  petition  sets  forth  vari- 
ous reasons  for  dissent  against  the  insertion  of  the  old 
ecclesiastical  laws  in  the  proposed  constitution.  We 
give  the  petition  as  found  in  the  Backus  manuscript  : 

Whereas,  Former  Legislatures  of  this  government,  by 
their  public  Acts,  formed  all  parts  of  it  into  towns,  dis- 
tricts, precincts,  or  parishes,  with  such  powers  as  to 
enable  the  majority  of  inhabitants  therein  to  covenant 
for  the  whole  with  religious  ministers,  and  to  compel  all 
to  pay  such  sums  as  they  were  pleased  to  demand  of 
them  for  that  purpose  ;  and  also,  by  said  laws,  impow- 
ered  and  required  the  quarter  sessions  of  the  peace  in 
each  county  to  send  a  minister  to  each  parish  that 
neglected  or  refused  to  settle  such  a  minister  as  the 
Court  called  orthodox,  and  to  compel  the  inhabitants  to 
support  the  same  ;  and  whereas,  we  are  informed  that 
many  have  a  design  of  adopting  those  ecclesiastical  laws 
into  the  new  Constitution  of  this  State  (notwithstanding 
their  general  profession  of  allowing  liberty  of  con- 
science), we  the  Subscribers,  who  are  all  above  twenty- 
one  years  of  age  and  faithful  subjects  of  this  State, 
esteem  it  our  duty  to  enter  our  dissent  against  such 
laws  : 

(i)  Because  the  choice  of  a  teacher  or  guide  for  our 
souls  is  one  of  the  most  important  points  of  Christian 
LIBERTY,  and  that  wherein  each  one  has  an  equal  right 
to  judge  for  himself. 

(2)   Because  the  power  that  makes  and  enforces  laws 

^  About  thirty  years  before  this,  in  1749,  it  fell  to  the  lot  of  Elder 
Backus  to  carry  a  Separatists'  petition — which  was  resolved  on  at  a 
meeting  of  "the  saints"  in  Attleborough — "down  to  the  Cape,"  to 
which  he  procured  one  hundred  and  eighty-three  signatures,  and  also 
secured  a  contribution  of  twenty-seven  pounds  for  the  cost  of  its  presen- 
tation. Copies  of  the  petition  were  sent  around  to  the  people  in  various 
parts  of  the  governments.  These  petitions  for  release  from  paying  min- 
isterial rates  were  unheeded  by  the  Council.  "On  the  side  of  theii 
oppressors  there  was  power. ' ' 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    225 

is  the  head  of  every  community ;  as  for  instance,  a  man 
is  the  head  of  his  family,  the  king  the  head  of  a  king- 
dom, etc.  So  is  Christ  the  only  lawgiver  and  head  of 
his  church.  .  .  But  is  there  any  man  or  body  of 
men  in  America  that  will  assume  the  place  of  Head  of 
any  ecclesiastical  body,  so  as  to  enable  that  body  to  sup- 
port their  religious  ministers  by  force  used  in  their 
name  ? 

(3)  Because  our  legislature  is  chosen  by  virtue  only 
of  civil  and  worldly  qualifications,  and  cannot  justly 
exercise  any  other  or  greater  power  than  their  constitu- 
ents had  to  give. 

(4)  Because  the  impowering  of  a  majority  to  judge 
for  the  rest  about  religious  ministers,  and  to  force  them 
to  support  them,  naturally  causes  envying  and  strife ; 
and  the  wisdom  which  promotes  it  descendeth  not  from 
above,  but  is  earthy,  sensual,  devilish  ;  but  the  wisdom 
that  is  from  above  is  first  pure,  then  peaceable,  gentle, 
and  easy  to  be  intreated,  full  of  mercy  and  good  fruits, 
without  PARTIALITY,  and  without  hypocrisy.  And  our 
earnest  prayer  is  that  your  Honors  may  be  the  happy 
instruments  of  promoting  such  impartial  peace,  as  to  fix 
it  as  a  fundamental  principle  of  our  constitution,  that 
religious  ministers  shall  be  supported  only  by  Christ's 
authority  and  not  at  all  by  assessment  and  secular 
force,  which  impartial  liberty  has  long  been  claimed  and 
enjoyed  by  the  town  of  Boston. 

The  draft  of  a  constitution  which  was  prepared  under 
the  authority  of  this  Court  seemed  to  provide  "  The  free 
exercise  and  enjoyment  of  religious  profession  and  wor- 
ship," but  it  left  open  a  loophole  for  the  former  system 
and  practice  of  religious  oppression  to  enter  and  hold 
sway.  For  this  and  divers  other  reasons  it  was  rejected 
by  the  people.  Thereupon  a  special  convention  was 
called  to  meet  at  Cambridge,  September  i,  1779,  for  the 


226  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

framing  of  a  constitution,  and  a  large  committee  for  this 
business  was  appointed.  The  Third  Article  of  the  Bill 
of  Rights,  as  originally  prepared  by  John  Adams,  gave  to 
civil  rulers  large  power  in  religious  matters,  and  a  Bap- 
tist member,  Rev.  Noah  Alden,  moved  to  have  that  ar- 
ticle recommitted.  The  motion  was  concurred  in,  and 
Mr.  Alden  was  made  chairman  of  a  committee  of  seven, 
"  five  of  whom  were  great  politicians."  A  new  draft  was 
brought  in,  which  gave  special  power  to  towns,  parishes, 
etc.,  to  provide  for  public  worship,  so  that  if  a  majority 
in  any  place  should  be  Baptists,  they  could  require  the 
minority  to  support  the  Baptist  cause.  But  this  substi- 
tute recognized  the  right  of  the  civil  power  to  control 
religious  matters,  and  so  was  not  satisfactory  to  the  Bap- 
tists ;  yet  after  warm  debates  it  was  passed  by  the  Con- 
vention.    The  amended  article  reads  as  follows : 

As  the  happiness  of  a  people  and  the  good  order  and 
preservation  of  civil  government  essentially  depend  upon 
piety,  religion,  and  morality ;  and  as  these  cannot  be 
generally  diffused  through  a  community  but  by  the  in- 
stitution of  the  public  worship  of  God,  and  of  public  in- 
struction in  piety,  religion,  and  morality  ;  therefore  to 
promote  their  happiness  and  to  secure  the  good  order 
and  preservation  of  their  government,  the  people  of  this 
commonwealth  have  a  right  to  invest  their  legislature 
with  power  to  authorize  and  require,  and  the  legislature 
sJiall  [the  italics  in  these  paragraphs  are  ours]  from  time 
to  time  authorize  and  require  the  several  towns,  parishes, 
precincts,  and  other  bodies  politic,  or  religious  societies, 
to  make  suitable  provision  at  their  own  expense  for  the 
institution  of  the  public  worship  of  God  and  for  the  sup- 
port and  maintenance  of  public  protcstaiit  teachers  of 
piety,  religion,  and  morality,  in  all  cases  where  such  pro- 
vision shall  not  be  made  voluntarily. 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    227 

And  the  people  of  this  commonwealth  have  also  a  right 
to  and  do  invest  their  legislature  with  authority  to  enjoin 
upon  all  the  subjects  an  attendance  upon  the  instructions 
of  the  public  teachers  aforesaid,  at  stated  times  and  sea- 
sons, if  there  be  any  on  whose  instructions  they  can  con- 
scientiously and  conveniently  attend.^ 

Provided,  Notwithstanding,  that  the  several  towns, 
parishes,  precincts,  and  other  bodies  politic,  or  religious 
societies,  shall,  at  all  times,  have  the  exclusive  right  of 
electing  their  public  teachers  and  of  contracting  with 
them  for  their  support  and  maintenance. 

And  all  monies  paid  by  the  subject  to  the  support  of 
public  worship  and  of  the  public  teachers  aforesaid, 
shall,  if  he  require  it,  be  uniformly  applied  to  the  sup- 
port of  the  public  teacher  or  teachers  of  his  own  reli- 
gious sect  or  denomination,  provided  there  be  any  on 
whose  instructions  he  attends  ;  otherwise  it  may  be  paid 
toward  the  support  of  the  teacher  or  teachers  of  the 
parish  or  precinct  in  which  said  monies  are  raised. 

And  every  denomination  of  Christians,  demeaning 
themselves  peaceably  and  as  good  subjects  of  the  com- 
monwealth, shall  be  equally  under  the  protection  of  the 
law ;  and  no  subordination  of  any  one  sect  or  denomina- 
tion to  another,  shall  ever  be  established  by  law. 

In  order  to  obtain  a  majority  vote  for  the  above,  "it 
was  asserted,"  as  Backus  says  : 

That  there  never  was  any  persecution  in  this  land,  but  that 
what  had  been  so  called  were  only  just  punishments  upon  dis- 
orderly persons  and  disturbers  of  the  public  peace.      And  the  Bap- 


*  This  word  conscientiously  may  have  been  inserted  at  the  suggestion  of 
the  "Baptist  member"  of  the  committee,  but  notwithstanding  the  ap- 
parent safeguard,  it  naturally  rested  at  last  with  the  civil  power  to  decide 
upon  one's  conscientiousness.  The  word  in  another  connection  proved 
very  offensive  to  the  Baptists,  since,  in  the  certificates  required  of  them, 
they  had  to  pass  judgment  on  the  conscientiousness  of  their  fellow- 
believers,'  which  act  they  deemed  to  be  the  prerogative  of  Deity. 


228  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

tists  were  accused  [l)y  two  members  of  the  Continental  Congress, 
John  Adams  and  Mr.  Paine]  of  sending  their  agent  to  I'liihidel- 
phia  in  1774,  with  a  false  memorial  of  grievances  in  order  to 
break  the  union  of  the  colonies.  Sharp  debates  were  caused 
hereby  for  some  time  ;  but  the  first  volume  of  our  history  was 
brought  in  and  laid  upon  the  table,  which  silenced  the  first  part  of 
those  declamations. 

And  in  reference  to  the  Philadelphia  matter,  the 
agent  drew  up  and  published  a  true  account  of  "  that 
affair,  and  of  the  promise  which  those  gentlemen  made, 
to  use  their  influence  to  obtain  the  same  liberty  for  the 
country  as  Boston  had  long  enjoyed."  He  then,  some- 
what in  the  spirit  of  Luther,  put  forth  the  following 
challenge  :  "  This  is  therefore  to  give  notice  that  I  am 
ready  to  meet  them  before  any  proper  judges,  when 
called,  to  answer  for  every  word  therein,  and  to  suffer 
deserved  punishment  if  I  am  convicted  of  advancing  any 
one  accusation  against  my  country  or  against  any  person 
therein  that  I  cannot  support.  .  .  I  am  willing  to  make 
all  the  allowance  in  this  case  to  forgetfulness  and  other 
human  infirmities  that  reason  or  religion  calls  for  ;  but 
if  those  gentlemen  should  persist  in  their  accusations 
against  us  without  fairly  supporting  them,  or  in  acting 
contrary  to  their  promise  at  Philadelphia,  the  public  will 
judge  how  far  they  will  deserve  regard  for  the  future." 
This  whole  account  "  was  published  in  the  '  Independent 
Chronicle,'  of  Boston,  Dec.  2,  1779.  But  no  answer 
was  ever  returned,  though  many  abusive  pieces  were 
published  against  said  agent."  ' 

After  the   State  Constitution  was  formed  in   March, 

*  For  a  brief  account  of  the  bitter  newspaper  controversy,  which  con- 
tinued several  months,  see  Backus'  "History,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  226,^/  seq. 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    229 

1780,  and  prior  to  its  ratification  by  the  people,  the 
Baptist  Committee,  through  their  agent,  pubHshed  an 
appeal  to  the  people  of  the  State  against  the  third 
article,  five  hundred  copies  of  which  were  distributed. 
They  also  sent  a  Protest  against  it  to  the  General  Court 
for  these  among  other  reasons:  i.  Because  it  asserts  a 
right  in  the  people  to  give  away  a  power  they  never  had 
themselves.  2.  Because  this  power  is  given  entirely 
into  the  hands  of  men  who  vote  only  by  virtue  of  money 
qualifications.  3  Because  it  is  subversive  of  the  ina- 
lienable rights  of  conscience,  since  the  civil  power  has 
to  judge  whether  persons  can  conveniently  and  consci- 
entiously attend  upon  the  instructions  of  the  public 
teachers  within  their  reach.  4.  "  Because  said  article 
contradicts  itself,  for  it  promises  equal  protection  of  all 
sects,  with  an  exemption  from  any  subordination  of  one 
religious  denomination  to  another  ;  when  it  is  impossible 
for  the  majority  of  any  community  to  govern  in  any 
affair,  unless  the  minority  are  in  subordination  to  them 
in  that  affair." 

Notwithstanding  all  the  protests,  the  new  constitution 
was  ratified  by  a  large  popular  vote,  and  was  adopted  by 
the  General  Court  before  the  close  of  the  year.  This 
Bill  of  Rights  was  not  amended  till  after  the  lapse  of 
fifty-three  years. 

Some  reference  should  here  be  made  to  the  good  ser- 
vice of  Rev.  Noah  Alden,  of  Bellingham,  in  pleading 
the  cause  of  religious  liberty  at  the  time  of  drafting  the 
constitution,  without  whose  labors  and  influence  the 
Third  Article  would  probably  have  been  far  more  objec- 
tionable than  it  is.  He  was  a  descendant  of  the  May- 
flower Alden  and  of  the  fair  Priscilla.      Born  in  Middle- 

u 


230  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

boro,  the  home  of  Isaac  Backus,  he  was  ever  "  the  firm 
and  steady  coadjutor  of  Backus"  in  the  great  struggle 
for  rehgious  freedom.  He  was  also  like  Backus,  a  dele- 
gate to  the  convention  for  ratifying  the  Federal  Constitu- 
tion, though  they  voted  on  opposite  sides. 

Of  course  the  Baptists  were  now  fearful  as  to  the 
future,  especially  as  the  constitution  empowers  a  ma- 
jority of  the  people  in  giv'en  instances  to  decide  on 
matters  of  religious  faith  and  worship.  Hence  in  view 
of  this  uncertainty,  the  brethren  were  assured  that  their 

strength  consists  in  union  and  perseverance  in  opposition  to 
the  unjust  claims  of  our  enemies.  .  .  A  free  communication  to 
our  brethren  who  have  suffered  in  the  cause,  and  the  promotion 
of  oneness  and  union  therein,  is  of  great  importance,  and  we  trust 
will  finally  prevail  to  our  deliverance  and  happiness.  And  for  the 
encouragement  of  any  who  may  be  called  to  suffer  in  any  towns  or 
parishes  for  refusing  to  give  certificates  or  to  pay  their  money  for 
the  support  of  a  ministry  from  which  they  conscientiously  dissent, 
we,  Ihe  Agent  and  Committee  of  the  Baptist  churches,  will  en- 
deavor that  the  expenses  which  may  fall  upon  any  individuals  for 
such  refusal,  shall  be  made  equal  by  collecting  money  for  said 
purpose  among  the  churches.      (Signed)  Isaac  Backus,  Agent. 

By  the  advice  and  direction  of  the  Committee. 

In  accordance  with  the  above  is  the  following  recom- 
mendation, which  was  made  to  the  churches  in  1 797,  and 
which  we  submit  as  a  sample  : 

Whereas,  The  Baptist  Church  and  Society  in  the  South  Parish  of 
Harwich  have  been  taxed  for  several  years  past,  to  the  support  of 
the  Congregational  minister,  to  the  amount  of  several  hundred 
dollars,  and  very  considerable  sums  of  it  have  been  actually  dis- 
trained from  them,  and  in  attempting  to  recover  it  by  law  they 
have  expended  near  five  lunuhcd  dollars  more  ;  it  is  therefore, 
earnestly  recommended  to  the  several  churches  to  have  a  contri- 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    23 1 

bution  for  said  Society,  in  order  to  assist  them  in  supporting  their 
ust  rights,  and  that  the  money  be  brought  forward  to  the  next  As- 
sociation.^ 

This  Harwich  case  is  but  a  sample  of  many  similar 
persecutions  which  took  place  even  after  the  adoption  in 
1 780  of  the  Constitution,  which  provided  that  "  No 
subordination  of  any  one  sect  or  denomination  to  another 
shall  ever  be  established  by  law,"  yet  in  that  very  year 
four  Baptist  brethren,  two  of  Bridgewater  and  two  of 
Lancaster,  were  imprisoned,  and  a  fifth  had  a  cow  taken 
from  him,  for  no  other  reason  than  a  refusal  to  ac- 
knowledge any  subordination  of  one  religious  sect  to 
another.^ 

At  the  Association  in  Third  Middleboro,  1784,  ac- 
counts of  "cruel  oppressions,"  including  doubtless  the 
imprisonment  of  three  Cambridge  men,  were  brought  in, 
and  it  was  "  resolved  to  unite  in  the  most  prudent  and 
vigorous  measures  for  putting  a  stop  to  these  oppres- 
sions and  to  maintain  the  just  rights  of  our  brethren  and 
friends."  A  Committee  of  Grievances  was  again  chosen, 
consisting  of  Samuel  Stillman,  Isaac  Skillman,  Hezekiah 
Smith,  and  Caleb  Blood. 

At  the  Association  in  Newton,  1786,  the  late  suffer- 
ings of  the  Church  and  Society  in  Cambridge  [now 
Arlington]  were  considered,  upon  which  it  was  unani- 
mously 

Resolved,  That  as  our  denomination  in  this  commonwealth 
have  been  long  oppressed  by  the  Congregationalists,  who  have 
claimed  the  power  of  supporting  religious  ministers  by  tax  and 

1  For  some  account  of  the  distraints  and  imprisonments  which  occurred 
in  Harwich,  see  Backus'    "History,"  Vol.  II,    pp.  550-I. 

2  Ibid,  Vol.  II.,  p.  228. 


232  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

compulsion  ;  and  in  consequence  of  this,  our  brethren  in  Cam- 
bridge, besides  their  time  and  trouble,  have  lately  been  at  the  ex- 
pense of  thirty-three  pounds  fifteen  shillings,  we  earnestly  recom- 
mend that  each  church  in  this  Association  raise  a  proportion  ol 
that  sum  as  soon  as  may  be,  and  forward  the  same  to  mr.  Isaac 
Skillman,  of  Boston,  or  to  mr.  Thomas  Green,  of  Cambridge,  for 
the  relief  of  the  sufferers. 

The  Minutes  of  the  Association  held  at  Sturbridge, 
1788,  have  this  record  :  "As  many  of  our  societies  are 
still  under  oppression  on  account  of  ministerial  ta.xes,  a 
memorial  and  petition  to  the  legislature  of  this  Com- 
monwealth for  its  removal,  and  the  establishment  of 
equal  religious  liberty  in  this  government,  was  laid  before 
the  Association  by  Rev.  Mr.  Backus,  and  was  approved," 
and  a  committee  was  appointed  to  "  present  this  or  a 
similar  petition,  in  such  time  and  manner  as  they  shall 
think  proper."  There  was  also  "paid  into  the  hands 
of  Rev.  Mr.  Gair  [pastor  of  the  Second  Baptist  Church 
in  Boston]  the  sum  of  si.x  pounds  eleven  shillings  and 
three  pence,  to  be  transmitted  to  our  brethren  in  Cam- 
bridge, in  addition  to  what  they  have  already  received 
toward  defraying  the  expense  of  their  late  lawsuit." 

In  1 791  the  Association  appointed  Elders  Stillman, 
Backus,  Baldwin,  Green,  and  Grafton,  to  be  "a  commit- 
tee to  whom  any  person  or  churches  aggrieved  by  being 
taxed  to  other  denominations,  may  apply  for  advice." 
The  letter  which  the  committee  sent  this  year  to  the  first 
parish  in  Barnstable  in  reference  to  their  repeatedly  tax- 
ing the  members  of  the  Baptist  Society  will  be  seen  far- 
ther on. 

The  Association  at  this  time  advised  against  applying 
to  the  civil  government  for  incorporation.     They  say  : 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    233 

All  we  ask  of  the  government  we  live  in  (not  as  a  favor  but  a 
right),  which  we  with  others  cheerfully  support,  is  protection  from 
injury  ;  that  our  money  may  not  be  taken  from  us  to  support  either 
sentiments  or  practices  that  are  contrary  to  our  judgment.  We  ask 
not  as  7'eligions  societies  for  the  power  of  parishes,  because  we 
cannot  blend  the  kingdom  of  Christ  with  the  kingdoms  of  this 
world,  nor  support  it  by  the  power  of  the  civil  magistrate. 

At  the  Association  in  Charlton,  1796,  the  usual  com- 
mittee of  grievances  was  chosen,  and  a  special  commit- 
tee of  three,  Stillman,  Baldwin,  and  Grafton,  was  ap- 
pointed to  prepare  and  present  a  petition  to  the  General 
Court,  "  praying  that  an  Act  may  be  passed  which  shall 
exempt  the  Baptists  in  future  from  being  taxed  to  other 
denominations."  A  committee  was  chosen  for  the  like 
purpose  the  next  year.  And  this  was  nearly  ten  years 
after  the  time  when,  by  the  Constitution,  there  was  to 
be  no  subordination  of  any  one  sect  or  denomination  to 
another. 

In  1800  the  Association  met  at  Providence  and  chose 
as  their  committee  Dr.  Smith,  Dr.  Stillman,  Mr.  Baldwin, 
Mr.  Grafton,  and  Mr.  Ebenezer  Smith,  of  the  Shafts- 
bury,  Vt.,  Association.  Upon  representation  that  Mr. 
Smith's  church  and  society  at  Partridgefield  "  have  been 
and  still  are  greatly  oppressed  by  being  taxed  to  a  large 
amount  [about  six  hundred  dollars]  toward  building  a 
Congregational  meeting  house  in  that  place,"  a  collec- 
tion of  twenty-three  dollars  eighty-three  cents  was  taken 
up  to  assist  the  brethren  in  an  action  commenced  for  the 
recovery  of  their  property. 

But,  after  this  long  jeremiad,  we  are  glad  to  speak  of 
a  different  and  better  state  of  things.  In  1805,  the 
Association  (which  was  the  last  one  Elder  Backus  ever 


234  NEW  England's  struggles 

attended,  being  the  year  before  his  death)  met  in  its 
birthplace,  Warren,  and  chose  a  "  committee  of  griev- 
ances"  FOR  THE  LAST  TIME  ! 

IX.    EFFECT     OF     THE    ADOPTION    OF    THE    CONSTITUTION. 

The  adoption  of  this  Constitution  with  its  sacred 
clause,  "  No  subordination  of  any  one  sect  or  denomina- 
tion to  another  shall  ever  be  established  by  law,"  espe- 
cially when  taken  in  connection  with  a  legal  decision 
made  soon  after,  was  yet  very  helpful  to  the  Baptists 
and  to  the  cause  of  religious  liberty.  In  the  circular  let- 
ter of  the  "  Associational  Minutes"  for  1783,  the  writer 
says  : 

Though  many  pleaded  for  this  doctrine  [that  all  men  are  born 
free  and  equal]  who  were  averse  to  having  the  same  reduced  to 
practice  among  us,  especially  in  religious  affairs,  yet  God  has 
taken  the  wise  in  their  own  craftiness  in  such  a  manner  as  not 
only  to  disappoint  their  expectations,  but  also  to  exceed  our  hopes. 
For  so  much  was  said  in  the  third  article  of  our  bill  of  rights 
about  the  exercise  of  civil  power  in  religious  matters  as  raised 
their  expectations  and  appeared  very  threatening  to  us.  But  it 
now  appears  upon  trial  that  the  last  clause  of  that  article  over- 
throws the  superstructure  which  was  intended  to  have  been  built 
thereon.  And  if  any  designed  to  call  in  some  foreign  aid  to  crush 
opposition  to  their  schemes,  they  are  herein  also  defeated.  For 
though  after  much  debate  the  word  Protestant  was  excluded  from 
being  a  test  of  our  legislature,  yet  a  much  better  name  ["Chris- 
tian," see  Constitution,  Chapter  VI.,  Article  I.]  is  placed  in  its 
stead  ;  and  to  persuade  the  people  to  receive  it,  it  was  said  to 
them,  "your  delegates  did  not  conceive  themselves  to  be  vested 
with  power  to  set  up  one  denomination  of  Christians  above  an- 
other [Protestants  above  Catholics],  for  religion  must  at  all  times 
be  a  matter  between  God  and  individuals."  Where  then  are  all 
their  complaints  against  Baptists  ? 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    235 

That  the  new  Constitution  with  its  Bill  of  Rights 
gave  additional  boldness  to  the  oppressed  Baptists  in  as- 
serting their  claims,  is  evident  from  the  tone  of  a  letter 
sent  by  the  "Committee  of  Grievances"  in  1791  to 
"the  Committee  of  the  First  Parish  in  Barnstable," 
which  we  here  reprint  from  Backus'  "  History."  A 
similar  letter  was  also  sent  to  the  Committee  of  the 
First  Parish  in  Yarmouth  : 

Gentlemen  :  The  Baptist  church  in  Barnstable  belongs  to  the 
association  of  regular  churches,  and  as  such  claims  the  advice  and 
protection  of  the  whole  body  so  far  as  their  case  requires  it  and 
they  have  power  to  afford  it.  By  the  Warren  Association,  at 
their  meeting  in  September  last,  we  were  appointed  a  Standing 
Committee  to  which  all  churches  of  our  denomination  in  this 
Commonwealth  are  to  apply  for  advice  and  assistance  when  op- 
pressed on  a  religious  account.  Having  therefore  recei\ed  a  well- 
attested  account  from  Barnstable  that  some  of  the  members  of  our 
society  have  been  repeatedly  taxed  and  their  property  taken  from 
them  to  support  the  Congregational  minister  of  that  place,  from 
whom  they  conscientiously  dissent,  and  though  they  have  a  min- 
ister of  their  own  to  maintain,  we,  the  Committee  of  the  Baptist 
churches,  think  it  our  duty  to  say  that  in  an  age  and  country  so 
enlightened  as  this,  such  acts  of  injustice  were  not  to  be  expected; 
and  in  all  companies  in  which  the  affair  has  been  mentioned,  it 
has  been  a  matter  of  astonishment.  ^  As  a  denomination  of  Chris- 
tians we  stand  on  an  equal  footing  with  any  in  the  Commonwealth, 
and  this  equality  we  mean  to  maintain  by  every  proper  method  in 
our  power.  If  the  parish  refuse  to  return  the  moneys  taken  from 
our  society  and  continue  to  tax  them  to  the  support  of  the  Con- 
gregational minister  of  Barnstable,  we  shall  be  reduced  to  the  dis- 
agreeable necessity  of  publishing  the  whole  to  the  world,  and  of 
taking  such  other  steps  as  shall  appear  to  us  necessary. 


1  Our  Baptist  historians  mention,  as  another  matter  of  astonishment, 
that  two  liwinen  in  Barnstable,  belonging  to  the  Pedobaptist  Separatist 
Church,  were  set  in  the  stocks  ! 


236  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

It  is  our  most  earnest  wish  that  the  different  denominations  of 
Christians  throughout  the  Commonwealth  may  live  together  in 
love  and  friendship  agreeable  to  the  spirit  of  the  gospel.  We  are 
with  sentiments  of  respect,  yours,  etc., 

(Signed)     Samuel  Stillman,  Isaac  Backus,  Thomas  Baldwin, 
Thomas  Green,  Joseph  Grafton. 

At  a  later  date,  in  1 796,  Backus  thus  wrote  : 

And  though  the  teachers  and  rulers  of  the  uppermost  party  in 
Massachusetts,  Connecticut,  New  Hampshire,  and  \'ermont  are 
as  earnest  as  ever  Pharaoh  was  to  hold  the  church  under  the  tax- 
ing power  of  the  world  to  support  religious  ministers,  yet  that 
power  is  daily  consuming  by  the  spirit  of  God's  mouth  and  the 
brightness  of  his  coming  !  Very  few  of  them  now  dare  to  make 
distress  upon  any  who  refuse  to  pay  ministers'  taxes;  and  the  credit 
of  Baptist  churches  and  ministers  is  daily  rising  in  all  parts  of  our 
country. 

The  next  year,  1797,  the  Association  met  at  l^oston, 
and  Elder  Baldwin  of  that  city  wrote  the  circular  letter  ; 
and  perhaps  these  circumstances  account  for  its  cheer- 
ful tone.  He  says  :  "  It  is  our  happy  lot  to  live  in  an 
age  when  the  churches  of  Christ  sit  under  their  own 
vine  and  fig  tree,  and  none  are  suffered  to  make  them 
afraid.  Persecution  for  conscience'  sake  is  almost  uni- 
versally discountenanced,  and  the  instances  in  which  any 
of  our  brethren  suffer  the  spoiling  of  their  goods  are 
com]5aratively  few."  Yet  at  this  Association  a  special 
contribution,  as  we  have  seen,  was  recommended  to  the 
churches  to  make  good  the  great  losses  sustained  b)-  the 
brethren  in  Harwich,  and  to  assist  them  in  supporting 
their  just  rights.  They  also  chose  Samuel  Stillman, 
Thomas  Baldwin,  Joseph  Grafton,  and  Joel  Briggs,  as 
"a  Committee  to  whom   pcisons  taxed  to  other  denom- 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGI^ES FINAL   TRIUMPH    237 

inations  may  apply  for  advice."  And  a  committee  of 
seven  was  appointed  "  to  petition  the  General  Court,  if 
they  should  think  proper,  to  have  an  act  passed  to 
exempt  Baptists  from  being  taxed  to  religious  teachers 
of  other  denominations."  A  similar  petition  having 
been  voted  for  the  last  year  may  have  been  the  reason 
for  the  above  conditional  clause. 

I  think  also  that  the  reader,  on  looking  back  over 
these  pages,  will  feel  that  recent  persecutions  for  relig- 
ious belief,  outside  of  Boston  (and  we  have  mentioned 
but  few  out  of  many),  have  not  been  so  very  rare.  And 
all  these  oppressive  acts  were  taking  place  at  a  time 
when,  as  Washington  says  in  his  letter,  written  in  1 790, 
to  the  Newport  Hebrews  : 

The  citizens  of  the  United  States  of  America  have  a  right  to 
applaud  themselves  for  having  given  to  mankind  examples  of  an 
enlarged  and  liberal  policy  :  a  policy  worthy  of  imitation.  All 
possess  alike  liberty  of  conscience  and  immunities  of  citizenship. 
It  is  now  no  more  that  toleration  is  spoken  of  as  if  it  was  by  the 
indulgence  of  one  class  of  people  that  another  enjoyed  the  exer- 
cise of  their  inherent  natural  rights.  For,  happily,  the  Govern- 
ment of  the  United  States,  which  gives  to  bigotry  no  sanction,  to 
persecution  no  assistance,  requires  only  that  they  who  live  under 
its  protection  should  demean  themselves  as  good  citizens  in  giving 
it  on  all  occasions  their  effectual  support. 

SECTION  X.    AN    IMPORTANT    LEGAL    DECISION. 

This  was  that  of  a  case  in  Attleborough  which  was 
tried  before  a  county  court  in  Taunton  in  1782.  One 
of  the  parties,  Mr.  Elijah  Balkom,  whose  goods  had  been 
seized  for  a  ministerial  tax,  sued  the  assessors  for  dam- 
ages before  a  justice  of  the  peace  in  Norton.  And 
though  it  was  then  and  there  fully  proved  that  he  had 


238  NKW  England's  struggles 

usually  attended  public  worship  with  the  First  Baptist 
Church  in  Attleborouf^h  and  had  communicated  to  its 
support,  yet  judgment  was  given  against  him,  from 
which  he  appealed  to  the  county  court.  As  it  was 
deemed  ' 

A  matter  of  great  importance,  to  have  points  of  law 
well  defined  and  settled  under  our  new  constitution 
of  government,  both  parties  agreed  to  have  the  case 
tried  by  the  honorable  justices  of  the  court ;  namely, 
Walter  Spooner,  Thomas  Durfee,  Benjamin  Williams, 
and  William  Baylies,  Esquires.  The  council  for  the  ap- 
pellant were  the  honorable  William  Bradford,  and  James 
Mitchel  Varnum,  Esquires.  For  the  appellees  was  the 
honorable  Robert  Treat  Paine,  Esq.,  attorney -general 
for  the  Commonwealth. 

The  last  named,  when  pleading  for  said  parish,  owned 
that  religion  must  at  all  times  be  a  matter  between  God 
and  individuals,  and  declared  that  he  disclaimed  all  sub- 
ordination of  any  one  sect  to  another  ;  but  pleaded  that 
the  certificates,  formerly  required  by  law,  were  not 
tokens  of  subordination  of  one  sect  to  another,  but  of 
subordination  to  the  government ;  and  accused  the  Bap- 
tists of  refusing  to  be  subordinate  to  government. 
He  also  pleaded  that  the  appellant  was  born  in  the 
second  parish  in  Attleborough,  was  baptized  there,  and 
therefore  was  to  all  intents  a  member  of  that  society ; 
so  that  if  he  thought  he  had  cause  to  leave  them,  the 
law,  reason,  and  even  common  civility,  required  that  he 
should  give  them  notice  of  it,  which  he  had  not  done. 

The  chief  pleas  for  the  appellant  were  that  religion 
was  prior  to  all  states  and  kingdoms  in  the  world,  and 
therefore  could  not  in  its  nature  be  subject  to  human 
laws ;  that  the  certificates  heretofore  required  were 
given  to  parish  ofificers,  officers  of  one  particular  sect  and 

*  riie  (|uotali()n  which  follows  is  from  Backus'  pamphlet,  "A  Door 
Opened  for  Equal  Christian  l.iherty." 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH    239 

not  to  officers  of  government ;  and  as  our  constitution 
says  "  No  subordination  of  any  one  sect  or  denomina- 
tion to  another  shall  ever  be  established  by  law,"  those 
laws  are  repealed  thereby.  And  as  the  constitution  was 
established  by  the  people,  it  is  stronger  than  any  law 
the  assembly  can  make,  it  being  the  foundation  whereon 
they  stand.  Also  the  society  to  which  the  appellant 
joined  is  as  regular  a  society  as  the  other  that  taxed 
him. 

These  points  were  learnedly  discussed  on  March  16, 
1782,  after  which  the  justices  retired  a  little  by  them- 
selves, and  then  returned  and  declared  "  that  they  were 
unanimously  agreed  in  giving  the  appellant  damages  and 
costs,"  which  judgment  not  only  settled  the  controversy 
in  Attleborough,  but  has  been  extensively  beneficial 
elsewhere. 

XI.  THE  RELIGIOUS  FREEDOM  ACT  OF  181I. 

A  wide  movement  of  the  people  about  this  time  in 
earnest  endeavor  for  religious  freedom  resulted  in  an  act 
of  the  legislature  with  which  Dr.  Baldwin,  at  a  later 
period,  expressed  himself  as  quite  well  satisfied  were  it 
only  generally  enforced  and  had  no  attempts  been  made 
to  repeal  it. 

In  a  suit  for  money  paid  for  ministerial  rates,  Chief 
Justice  Theophilus  Parsons  decided  that  no  society,  ex- 
cept it  be  incorporated  by  law,  could  get  back  the  money 
thus  paid.  A  petition  signed  by  many  thousands  of  the 
citizens  of  the  State  was  presented  to  the  legislature, 
urging  it  to  so  revise  and  amend  the  existing  laws  re- 
specting the  support  of  public  worship  that  "  all  denomi- 
nations of  Christians  may  be  exempt  from  being  taxed 
for  the  support  of  religious  teachers,  excepting  those 
whose  ministrations  they  voluntarily  attend."     In  sup- 


240  NEW  England's  struggi^es 

port  of  this  petition,  I'Lldcr  John  Leland  made  a  charac- 
teristic speech  from  which  we  make  the  following 
extract : 

Mr.  Speaker,  according  to  a  late  decision  of  the  bench  in  the 
County  of  Cumberland,  which  it  is  presumed  is  to  be  a  precedent 
for  future  decisions,  these  non-incorporated  societies  are  nobody, 
can  do  nothing,  and  are  never  to  be  known  except  in  shearing 
time  when  their  money  is  wanted  to  support  teachers  that  they 
never  hear.  And  all  this  must  be  done  for  the  good  of  the  State. 
One  hundred  and  seventeen  years  ago,  wearing  long  hair  was  con- 
sidered the  crying  sin  of  the  land.  A  convention  was  called 
March  18,  1694,  in  Boston  to  prevent  it.  After  a  long  expostulation 
the  Convention  closes  thus  :  "  If  any  man  will  now  presume  to  wear 
long  hair,  let  him  know  that  God  and  man  witnesses  against  him."  ' 
Our  pious  ancestors  were  for  bobbing  the  hair  for  the  good  of  the 
Colony  ;  but  now,  sir,  not  the  hair  but  the  purses  must  be  bobbed 
for  the  good  of  the  State.  The  petitioners  pray  for  the  right  of 
going  to  heaven  in  that  way  which  they  believe  is  the  most  direct ; 
and  shall  this  be  denied  them  ?  Must  they  be  obliged  to  pay 
legal  toll  for  walking  the  king' s  highway  which  he  has  made  free 
for  all  ?  Is  not  this  a  greater  subordination  than  to  sail  under 
British  licenses,  or  to  pay  three  pence  on  every  pound  of  tea?  In 
Rhode  Island,  New  York,  New  Jersey,  Pennsylvania,  and  Dela- 
ware, of  the  old  Colonies  ;  and  in  Kentucky,  Tennessee,  and 
Ohio,  the  new  States,  there  has  never  been  any  legal  establishment 
of  religion,  nor  any  assessment  to  support  Protestant  Christianity 
for  the  good  of  the  States  ;  and  yet,  sir,  these  States  have  stood 
and  flourished  as  well  as  Massachusetts.      Since  the  Revolution, 

^  A  manifesto  against  "the  wearing  of  long  hair  after  the  manner  of 

Russians  and  barbarous  Indians  "  was  put  forth  "  the  third  month  [May] 
10"'  day,  1649,"  by  Endicott,  Dudley,  and  seven  other  Magistrates;  the 
full  text  of  which  is  given  in  Hutchinson's  "History  of  the  Colony  of 
Massachusetts  Bay,"  Vol.  I.,  p.  151.  Thisdocument  alsodeclares  in  clos- 
ing, that  "such  as  shall  prove  obstinate  and  will  not  reforme  themselves 
may  have  God  and  man  to  witness  against  them."  Were  not  the  dates 
given  by  Mr,  Leland  so  specific,  we  might  suppose  his  reference  was  to 
this  earlier  manifesto. 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGIvES — FINAL  TRIUMPH    24 1 

all  the  old  States,  except  two  or  three  in  New  England,  have  es- 
tablished religious  liberty  upon  its  true  bottom  ;  and  yet  they  are 
not  sunk  with  earthquakes  or  destroyed  with  fire  and  brimstone. 
Should  this  Commonwealth,  Mr.  Speaker,  proceed  so  far  as  to 
distribute  all  settlements  and  meeting-houses,  which  were  pro- 
cured by  public  taxes,  among  all  the  inhabitants  without  regard  to 
denomination,  it  is  probable  that  the  outcry  of  sacrilege,  pro- 
fanity, and  infidelity  would  be  echoed  around  ;  and  yet,  sir,  all 
this  has  been  done  in  a  State  which  has  given  birth  and  education 
to  a  Henry,  a  Washington,  a  Jefferson,  and  a  Madison  ;  each  of 
whom  contributed  their  aid  to  effect  the  grand  event.  .  .  These 
petitioners,  sir,  pay  the  civil  list  and  arm  to  defend  their  country 
as  readily  as  others,  and  only  ask  for  the  liberty  of  forming  their 
societies  and  paying  their  preachers  in  the  only  way  that  the 
Christians  did  for  the  first  three  centuries  after  Christ.  Any  gen- 
tleman upon  this  floor  is  invited  to  produce  an  instance  that 
Christian  societies  were  ever  formed.  Christian  Sabbaths  ever 
enjoined.  Christian  salaries  ever  levied,  or  Christian  worship  ever 
enforced  by  law  before  the  reign  of  Constantine.  Yet  Christianity 
did  stand  and  flourish  not  only  without  the  aid  of  the  law  and  the 
schools,  but  in  opposition  to  both.  We  hope,  therefore,  Mr. 
Speaker,  that  the  prayers  of  thirty  thousand,  on  this  occasion,  will 
be  heard,  and  that  they  will  obtain  the  exemption  for  which  they 
pray. 

In  June,  181 1,  a  law  was  passed  by  the  General  Court, 
providing  that  whenever  any  person  shall  become  a 
member  of  any  religious  society,  incorporate  or  unincor- 
porate  (this  latter  term  rendering  any  such  decision  as 
Justice  Parsons'  nugatory),  and  shall  produce  a  certificate 
of  such  membership  to  the  clerk  of  the  town  where  he 
resides,  signed  by  a  Committee  of  the  Society  chosen 
for  the  purpose,  such  person  shall  ever  afterward,  so  long 
as  he  continues  such  membership,  be  exempted  from  tax- 
ation for  the  support  of  public  worship  and  public  teachers 
of  religion  in  every  other  religious  corporation' whatever. 


242  NEW  ENGLAND'.S   STRUGGLES 

This  "  Religious  Freedom  Act,"  though  a  great  advance 
upon  its  predecessors,  was  not  wholly  satisfactory  to  the 
Baptists,  as  it  retained  the  odious  certificate  system,  yet 
it  affe)rded  great  relief  from  the  oppressions  they  had  so 
long  endured.  At  a  meeting  of  the  Warren  Association 
in  Boston  this  year,  which  was  also  the  year  when  the 
Boston  Association  was  organized,  the  author  of  the 
circular  letter,  Ensign  Lincoln,  says  : 

We  meet  under  external  circumstances  far  different  from  our 
fathers.  Unmolested  in  the  enjoyment  of  our  religious  privileges, 
we  sit  quietly  under  our  \ine  and  under  our  fig  tree.  By  a  late 
provision  of  the  civil  government  of  this  Commonwealth,  those 
embarrassments  which  have  heretofore  existed  are  removed  ;  and 
we  are  under  increased  obligations  for  gratitude  to  our  heavenly 
Parent  for  his  bountiful  provision. 

XII.    THE  DELAYED    EMANCIPATION  OF  MASSACHUSETTS. 

It  was  the  hope  of  many,  founded  doubtless  on  the 
advanced  movement  of  i8ii,that  the  State  Constitu- 
tional Convention  of  1820  would  be  the  means  of  estab- 
lishing not  toleration  only,  but  full  religious  liberty.' 
Strenuous  efforts  were,  indeed,  made  to  effect  this  re- 
sult, but  they  proved  unavailing.  John  Adams,  who 
struggled  so  long  and  so  hard  to   secure  our   national 

'  Rev.  George  E.  Horr,  Jr.,  in  his  remarks  at  the  Backus  Monument 
Celebration,  made  a  brief  but  very  clear  distinction  between  these  two 
things  which  are  often  confounded  together.  "Toleration,"  he  said  "is 
for  the  magistrate  to  say  to  us  '  I  will  not  give  you  the  right  to  think 
and  worship  as  you  please,  but  I  will  wink  at  your  violation  of  the  law.' 
Liberty  is  for  you  to  say  to  me,  '  I  shall  believe  and  worship  God  accord- 
ing to  the  dictates  of  my  own  conscience  and  I  disclaim  your  right  to 
impose,  in  these  matters,  any  law  upon  me.'  "  See  also  Washington's 
definition  of  toleration,  p.  237. 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    243 

independence/  was  at  the  age  of  nearly  eighty-six  years 
a  member  of  the  Convention,  and  although  he  still  felt 
it  hazardous  to  abolish  the  religious  establishment  of  the 
State,  to  which  formerly  he  clung  so  tenaciously,  yet  in 
accordance  with  the  extreme  liberalism  of  his  religious 
views  in  old  age,  he  sought  to  effect  a  modification  in  the 
third  article  of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  so  that  "  all  men  of 
all  religions,  demeaning  themselves  as  good  subjects,  shall 
enjoy  the  equal  protection  of  the  laws."  Daniel  Web- 
ster, also  a  member  of  the  Convention,  thought  it  a  duty 
to  provide  for  the  support  of  public  worship,  and  felt  no 
objection  to  taxation  therefor  on  account  of  conscience, 
yet  was  for  striking  out  of  the  constitution  "  that  part 
which  respects  enjoining  attendance  on  public  worship," 
and  also  favored  the  expenditure  of  moneys  paid  by  any 
one  for  public  worship,  on  the  religious  teacher  whose 
instructions  he  attended. 

The  early  Baptist  leaders.  Manning,  Alden,  Smith, 
Backus,  Stillman  (died  respectively  in  1791,  1797,  1805, 
1806,  1807),  had  been  called  to  enter  into  rest.  But 
other  Baptist   champions  of  religious  liberty  remained, 


1  Along  with  Adams'  recommendation  of  the  use  of  bells,  guns,  and 
other  noisy  instruments  to  celebrate  the  Declaration  of  Independence  in 
all  coming  time,  we  would  like  to  have  some  other  words  of  his  (prima- 
rily addressed  to  his  wife,  see  his  "Letters,"  pp.  214,  265)  go  down  the 
ages  also.  He  says  :  "This  country  knows  not  and  never  can  know  the 
torments  I  have  endured  for  its  sake.  I  am  glad  it  never  can  know,  for 
it  would  give  more  pain  to  the  benevolent  and  humane  than  I  could 
wish  even  the  wicked  and  malicious  to  feel.  .  .  Posterity  !  you  will 
never  know  how  much  it  cost  the  present  generation  to  preserve  your 
freedom  !  I  hope  you  will  make  good  use  of  it.  If  you  do  not  I  shall 
repent  it  in  heaven  that  I  ever  took  half  the  pains  to  preserve  it." 
Verily  "  with  a  great  sum,"  did  our  fathers  obtain  for  us  our  civil  and  re- 
ligious freedom. 


244  ^EW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

prominent  among  whom  was  iJr.  Thomas  Baldwin,  for 
thirty-five  years  an  honored  pastor  in  Boston.  He  was  a 
man  of  persuasive  speech,  of  commanding  influence,  and 
withal  genial  in  spirit  and  manner,  and,  ably  seconded  by 
Rev.  N.  W.  Williams,  of  Beverly,  and  others,  took  a  very 
active  part  in  the  Convention  in  the  interest  of  religious 
liberty.  In  his  different  addresses  he  contended  that  all 
the  persecutions  and  consequent  bloodshed  of  the  past 
were  due  to  an  unnatural  combination  of  religion  with 
civil  power,  and  that  religion  should  not  be  propa- 
gated and  supported  by  aid  of  the  civil  magistrate.  He 
thought  every  religious  society  would  better  manage  its 
own  affairs.  He  favored  voluntary  contribution,  and 
sought  no  support  from  taxation.  His  chief  contention 
was  that  "  every  man  should  have  a  right  to  worship 
where  he  pleased,  and  not  to  pay  where  he  did  not  wor- 
ship."     One  proposition  of  his  was  that 

Whenever  any  person  shall  become  a  member  of  any  religious 
society,  corporate  or  unincorporate,  such  membership  shall  be  cer- 
tified by  a  committee,  chosen  for  this  purpose,  and  if  filed  with  the 
clerk  of  the  town  where  he  dwells,  such  person  shall  forever  after 
be  exempted  from  taxation  for  the  support  of  public  worship  and 
public  teachers  of  religion  in  every  other  religious  corporation 
whatsoever,  so  long  as  he  shall  continue  such  membership. 

Rev.  Mr.  Williams,  of  Beverly,  proposed  that 

Every  religious  society,  incorporated  or  unincorporated,  should 
have  power  to  raise  money  for  the  purposes  of  the  society,  in  such 
manner  as  they  should  choose  ;  that  every  person  should  be  at 
liberty  to  unite  himself  to  such  .society  as  he  pleased,  and  the 
monies  paid  by  him  should  go  to  the  support  of  the  teacher 
of  such  society,  and  that  every  person  who  did  not  class  himself 
voluntarily    with    any  society  should    b2  classed  with   the    town, 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL  TRIUMPH    245 

parish,  or  precinct  in  which  he  lived,  and  be  taxed  [was  this  a 
compromise  ?  ]  for  the  support  of  public  worship  in  such  town, 
parish,  or  precinct. 

Mr.  Childs,  of  Pittsfield,  offered  a  resolution  that  was 
favored  by  the  Baptist  members  generally,  which  was 
that 

Each  and  every  society  or  denomination  of  Christians  in  this  State 
shall  have  and  enjoy  the  same  and  equal  powers,  rights,  and  privi- 
leges ;  and  shall  have  power  and  authority  to  raise  money  for 
the  support  and  maintenance  of  religious  teachers  of  their  respec- 
tive denominations,  and  to  build  and  repair  houses  of  public 
worship,  by  a  tax  on  the  members  of  any  such  society  only,  to  be 
laid  by  a  major  vote  of  the  legal  voters  assembled  at  any  society 
meeting,  warned  and  held  according  to  law. 

All  these  propositions  were,  of  course,  voted  down. 
We  think,  however,  our  Baptist  brethren  must  have  been 
tolerably  well  satisfied  with  "Article  the  First,"  which 
with  thirteen  others,  the  Convention  submitted  to  the 
people,  the  first  part  of  which  reads  as  follows  : 

The  power  and  the  duty  of  the  Legislature  to  require 
provision  to  be  made  for  the  institution  of  the  public 
worship  of  God,  and  for  the  support  and  maintenance  of 
public  teachers,  shall  not  be  confined  to  Protestant 
teachers,  but  shall  extend  and  be  applied  equally  to  all 
public  Christian  teachers  of  piety,  religion,  and  morality; 
and  shall  also  extend  to  all  religious  societies,  whether  in- 
corporated or  unincorporated. 

All  monies  paid  by  the  subject  for  the  support  of 
public  worship  and  of  the  public  teachers  aforesaid,  shall, 
if  he  require  it,  be  applied  to  the  support  of  the  public 
teacher  or  teachers,  if  there  be  any,  on  whose  instruc- 
tions he  attends,  whether  of  the  same  or  of  a  different 
sect  or  denomination  from  that  of  the  parish  or  religious 
society  in  which  the  said  monies  are  raised. 


246  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

The  clause  in  the  third  article  of  the  declaration  of 
rights  which  invests  the  Legislature  with  authority  to 
enjoin  on  all  the  subjects  of  the  Commonwealth  an 
attendance  upon  the  instructions  of  public  teachers,  shall 
be  and  hereby  is  annulled. 

This  article  which  substitutes  "  Christian  "  for  "  Pro- 
testant," allows  one  to  pay  where  he  chooses  to  worship, 
and  does  away  with  the  former  enforced  attendance  on 
public  religious  service,  on  being  submitted  to  the  people 
failed  of  securing  their  ratification — eleven  thousand 
and  sixty-five  voting  for  it,  while  nineteen  thousand  five 
hundred  and  forty-seven  voted  against  it !  The  large 
Counties  of  Suffolk  and  Middlesex,  the  original  home  of 
the  Puritans  in  this  country,  voted  for  it,  but  Plymouth 
County  voted  largely  in  the  negative,  five  hundred  and 
ninety-seven  yeas  to  one  thousand  six  hundred  and  forty- 
five  nays ! 

Thus  Massachusetts  was  in  a  measure  consistent  with 
herself.  In  1789  she  proposed  nine  articles  of  amend- 
ment to  the  Constitution  of  the  United  States,  but  the 
glorious  first  article  was  not  one  of  them— that  article 
we  mean,  which  was  proposed  by  New  Hampshire  and 
Virginia  and  which  says,  "  Congress  shall  make  no  law 
respecting  an  establishment  of  religion,  or  prohibiting 
the  free  exercise  thereof";  nor  did  she,  to  her  shame 
be  it  said,  do  herself  the  honor  of  voting  for  its  adoption. 
And  now,  through  her  strong  Puritanic  influence,  she 
again  puts  off  the  day  of  equal  religious  liberty  for  all. 

XI IF.    CHURCH    AND    .STATE    FINALLY    SEPARATED. 

We  are  teaching  the  world  tlie  great  truth  that  go\-ernments  do 
better  without  kings  and  nobles  than  with  them.      The  merit  will 


SUBSEQUENT   STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    247 

be  doubled  by  the  other  lesson :  that  reUgion  flourishes  in  greater 
purity  without  than  with  the  aid  of  government. 

James  Madison,  1822. 

If  to  hold  a  doctrine  first  and  last  and  all  the  time,  as  indi- 
viduals and  as  a  denomination,  alone  and  peculiarly,  consistently, 
persistently,  emphatically,  obtrusively,  gives  a  denomination  a 
right  to  claim  that  doctrine,  then  Baptists  may  claim  as  theirs  the 
doctrine  of  a  separation  of  Church  and  State. 

Prof  John  C.  Long. 

In  1 83 1  the  House  of  the  Massachusetts  Legislature 
voted  favorably  upon  an  amendment  of  the  third  ar- 
ticle of  the  Bill  of  Rights,  two  hundred  and  seventy- 
two  yeas  to  seventy-eight  nays,  but  the  Senate,  by  a 
majority  of  three,  referred  the  matter  to  the  next  Gen- 
eral Court.  Very  early  in  the  legislative  session  of  1832 
a  flood  of  petitions  was  sent  in  for  the  passage  of  an 
amendment  showing  that  there  was  a  general  senti- 
ment in  its  favor.  But  the  Committee  of  the  Judi- 
ciary to  which  it  was  referred,  twice  reported  its  adop- 
tion unnecessary  and  inexpedient.  Yet  the  House  did 
adopt  it  by  a  vote  of  three  hundred  and  forty-seven  to 
ninety-two,  and  the  Senate  by  a  vote  of  twenty-five  to 
thirteen,  referring  it,  as  by  law  required,  to  the  action  of 
the  next  Legislature,  which,  early  in  1833,  gave  it  a  still 
larger  affirmative  vote — the  House,  four  hundred  and 
twenty-nine  to  seventy-four,  and  the  Senate,  twenty-eight 
to  nine.  The  popular  vote  on  the  eleventh  of  Novem- 
ber following  was  thirty-two  thousand  one  hundred  and 
sixty-four  in  favor  of  its  adoption,  to  three  thousand  two 
hundred  and  sixty-five  against  its  adoption.  In  this  mat- 
ter Nantucket  was  plainly  the  banner  county,  Bristol 
County  coming  next.     Plymouth  County,  we  are  sorry 


248  NEW  England's  struggles 

to  sii}',  gax'c  comparative!}'  a  very  large  negative  vote, 
Plymouth  and  Hampshire  in  this  respect  standing  low- 
est on  the  list. 

Thus  after  many  long  years,  during  which  the  self- 
contradiction  of  the  third  article  was  allowed  to  con- 
tinue as  a  source  of  trouble,  the  people  of  Massachu 
setts,  by  an  overwhelming  majority,  adopted  in  its  stead 
the  eleventh  article  of  Amendment,  which  frees  the 
Church  from  State  domination,  and  which  not  only  al- 
lows but  secures  ecjual  liberty  to  all.  Article  XI.  reads 
as  follows  : 

As  the  public  worship  of  God  and  instructions  in 
piety,  religion,  and  morality  promote  the  happiness  and 
prosperity  of  a  people  and  the  security  of  a  republican 
government ;  therefore,  the  several  religious  societies  of 
this  Commonwealth,  whether  corporate  or  unincorpo- 
rate,  at  any  meeting  legally  warned  and  holden  for  that 
purpose,  shall  ever  have  the  right  to  elect  their  pastors 
or  religious  teachers,  to  contract  with  them  for  their 
support,  to  raise  money  for  erecting  and  repairing 
houses  for  public  worship,  for  the  maintenance  of  relig- 
ious instruction,  and  for  the  payment  of  necessary  ex- 
penses ;  and  all  persons  belonging  to  any  religious  so- 
ciety shall  be  taken  and  held  to  be  members  until  they 
shall  file  with  the  clerk  of  such  society  a  written  notice 
declaring  the  dissolution  of  their  membership,  and  thence- 
forth shall  not  be  liable  for  any  grant  or  contract  which 
may  be  thereafter  made  or  entered  into  by  such  society  ; 
and  all  religious  sects  and  denominations  demeaning 
themselves  peaceably  and  as  good  citizens  of  the  Com- 
monwealth, shall  be  equally  under  the  protection  of  the 
law  ;  and  no  subordination  of  any  one  sect  or  denomina- 
tion to  another  shall  ever  be  established  by  law.' 

'  Elder  Backus,  of  course,  did  not  live  to  see  this  day  of  assured  equal 
liberty,  yet  in  the  last  sentences  of  the  last  work  he  ever  published  (a 


SUBSEQUENT  STRUGGLES — FINAL   TRIUMPH    249 

While  we  may  greatly  rejoice  at  this  separation  of 
Church  and  State,  we  should  deem  it  the  greatest  of 
calamities  that  there  should  exist  between  them  any  cold 
indifference,  estrangement,  or  repugnance.  Neither  can 
do  the  other's  work,  but  they  may  be  mutually  help- 
ful. Rulers  are  to  be  '' ministers  of  God  for  good"  in 
behalf  of  the  people.  The  State  shall  see  to  it  that 
under  its  rule  Christians  and  others  may  "  lead  a  quiet 
and  peaceable  life  in  all  godliness  and  honesty."  And 
thus  in  an  important  sense  kings  may  and  should  be 
nursing  fathers  and  queens  be  nursing  mothers  to  the 
church.  On  the  other  hand.  Christians  are  citizens  of 
an  earthly  as  well  as  of  an  heavenly  kingdom,  and  should 
with  willing  hearts  support,  revere,  and  obey  all  rightful 
authority.  In  the  "  Backus  Memorial  Pamphlet,"  '  p.  34, 
Dr.  Hovey  thus  rightly  speaks  :  "Though  we  rejoice  in 
such  a  separation  of  Church  and  State  as  makes  room 
for  religious  freedom,  we  do  not  look  upon  these  organ- 
izations as  antagonistic  to  each  other  in  purpose  or  func- 
tion. I  should  as  soon  reckon  the  purpose  of  the  eye 
hostile  to  that  of  the  ear,  or  the  office  of  the  head  hos- 
tile to  that  of  the  foot.     Church  and  State  are  friendly 


sermon  on  Luke  7  :  g,  "A  great  Faith  described  and  inculcated,"  Bos- 
ton, 1805),  he  uses  this  somewhat  exultant  language  :  "We  have  cause 
to  remember  with  thankfulness  that  God  has  established  a  civil  govern- 
ment over  us  which  allows  equal  liberty  to  all,  so  that  each  one  may  lead 
a  quiet  and  peaceable  life  in  all  godliness  and  honesty.  Such  great, 
such  unspeakable  privileges  demand  proportional  love  and  obedience." 
Backus,  in  the  above  language,  doubtless  had  in  mind  the  Attleborough 
legal  decision  in  1782,  when  there  was,  as  he  says,  "A  door  opened  for 
equal  Christian  liberty,  and  no  man  can  shut  it." 

'  A  pamphlet  of  nearly  eighty  pages  gives  an  account  of  the  services 
at  the  dedication  of  the  Backus  monument  at  North  Middleboro,  Mass., 
June  30,  1893. 


250  NKW  KNGLAND'S    STRUGGI.KS 

powers,  working  together  for  the  good  of  mankind. 
They  may  be  eompared  with  sunshme  and  rain,  neither 
of  which  can  do  the  work  of  the  other,  but  each  of 
which  can  do  much  to  help  on  the  work  of  the  other. 
God  bless  them  both  and  make  them  a  blessing." 


APPENDIX  A  (P.  22) 


It  it  difficult  for  ns  to  imagine  the  surprise  and  alarm  which 
filled  the  Puritan  community  at  President  Dunster's  change 
of  views.  An  early  historian,  Edward  Johnson,  speaks  of 
him  as  ''an  able  proficient  both  in  the  Hebrew,  Greek,  and 
Latin  languages,  an  orthodox  preacher  of  the  truths  of  Christ, 
and  very  powerful,  through  his  blessing,  to  move  the  affec- 
tions," and  we  wonder  not  that  the  Puritan  fathers  "labored 
with  an  extreme  agony  to  rescue  the  good  man  from  his  mis- 
take. ' '  He  was  probably  half  an  immersionist  in  theory  when 
he  joined  the  Cambridge  Church.  In  his  confession  he  simply 
remarked  that  "concerning  the  outward  elements,  something 
there  is  concerning  sprinkling  in  the  Scriptures — hence  not 
offended  when  [it]  is  used."  But  it  was  not  till  165 1,  when 
the  three  Baptist  brethren  were  tried  and  sentenced  for  hold- 
ing a  private  religious  meeting  at  Lynn,  that  he,  "by  search- 
ing into  these  matters,  was  brought  openly  to  renounce  infant 
baptism  ' '  (Backus).  On  this  point  he  had  for  two  days,  tn 
February,  1654,  a  public  conference  in  Boston  with  nine  lead- 
ing ministers  of  the  Bay  Colony.  He  then  and  there  told 
them  that  "Children  under  ye  gospel  have  Christ's  express 
testimony  that  they  have  a  nearer  access  unto  him  and  a 
nearer  acceptance  with  him  than  children  under  ye  law,  viz. , 
in  Matt.  19;  Mark  10,"  and  that  "All  instituted  Gospel  wor- 
ship hath  some  expresse  word  of  Scripture,  but  pedobap- 
tisme  hath  none." 

The  Conference  having  failed  to  rescue  the  "erroneous 
gentleman,"  this  business  was  undertaken  in  1655  by  the 
General  Court.  Some  time  after  his  resignation  and  about 
eight  months  subsequent  to  the  alleged  offense,  he  was  pre- 
sented on  the  charge  of  interrupting  the  services  of  the 
Sabbath,  for  which  he  was  "  publiquely  admonished"  in  the 
meeting-house  where  he  had  so  often  preached  and  prayed; 
and  about  two  years  after  this,  while  serving  as  pastor  in 
Scituate,  but  still  retaining  some  connection  with  Cam- 
bridge,  he  was   again   presented  to  the  Puritan   grand  jury 

251 


252  NEW  ENGLAND'S  STRUGGLES 

(along  with  Thomas  Gould,  of  Charlestown,  afterward  first 
pastor  of  the  Baptist  church  in  Boston)  for  not  bringing  his 
child  to  baptism. 

Of  course  we  can  have  no  adequate  idea  of  the  struggle  and 
sorrow  he  experienced  by  "  his  unhappy  entanglements  in  the 
snares  of  anabaptism. "  Among  his  "  extraordinary  labors  " 
for  the  college  (which  the  court  at  first  ungraciously  ques- 
tioned, though  it  afterward  did  acknowledge  his  "extraor- 
dinary pains  ' '  and  his  ' '  good  service  ' ' ),  he  had  caused  a  presi- 
dent's  house  to  be  l)uilt  "  thorow  great  difficultyes "  and 
"  upon  very  damageful  conditions"  to  himself-  and  now  in 
the  coldest  season  of  the  year  he  is  obliged  to  leave  it  and  to 
go  as  a  social  outcast  he  knows  not  where  and  to  do  he  knows 
not  what.  In  speaking  of  the  objections  to  the  removal  of 
his  afflicted  family  from  Cambridge  in  winter,  he  says  :  "  My 
wife  is  sick  and  my  youngest  child  extremely  so,  and  hath 
been  for  months,  so  that  we  dare  not  carry  him  out  of  doors, 
yet  much  worse  now  than  before.  However,  if  a  place  be 
found  that  may  be  comfortable  for  them  and  reasonably  an- 
swer the  obstacles  above  mentioned,  myself  will  willingly  bow 
my  neck  to  any  yoke  of  personal  self-denial,  for  1  know  for 
what  and  by  whom  by  grace  I  suffer. ' '  The  court  granted 
him  leave  to  remain  till  spring.  The  offer  of  friends  in  the 
old  world  to  provide  a  comfortable  home  for  himself  and  fam- 
ily, and  to  furnish  fifty  pounds  for  the  carrying  of  them  over 
must  have  been  very  comforting  to  him  at  this  time. 

Notwithstanding  the  severe  trials  and  wrongs  which  he  ex- 
perienced, he  seems  ever  to  have  retained  his  affection  for 
Cambridge  and  his  former  friends.  By  his  request  he  was  in- 
terred near  the  halls  of  the  college,  and  in  his  will  he  ap- 
pointed his  former  pastor,  Mitchell,  and  his  successor,  Chaun- 
cy,  his  "revered  and  trusty  friends  and  brethren,"  to  ap- 
praise his  library,  and  he  made  both  of  them  some  specific 
bequests.  We  may  remark  that  Mr.  Mitchell  composed  an 
elegy  or  verses  to  his  memory,  two  stanzas  of  which  may  be 
seen  on  page  no  of  Dr.  McKenzie's  "History  of  the  First 
Church  in  Cambridge.  Other  stanzas  may  be  seen  in  Math- 
er's  "Magnaha,"  Vol.  H.,  p.  80. 

It  is  a  singular  circumstance  that  in  course  of  time  the  slab 
over  his  grave  decayed  and  the  inscription  disappeared,  so  that 
for  a  while  his  burial  place  was  lost.      But  in  184C  it  was  dis- 


APPENDIX    B  253 

covered,  and  upon  opening  his  grave  they  found  the. tansy  and 
other  herbs  with  which  his  body  had  been  ' '  embahiied ' '  still 
fragrant!  And  his  must  ever  be  a  fragrant  and  precious  mem- 
ory. While  we  may  feel  that  he  erred  on  one  occasion 
through  his  zeal  for  the  truth,  we  at  the  same  time  can  but  ad- 
mire his  openness  and  honesty  of  character,  especially  as  con- 
trasted with  that  of  his  successor  who,  holding  to  immersion- 
ist  views  and  to  the  necessity  of  a  weekly  and  evening  observ- 
ance of  the  Lord's  Supper,  openly  professea  "he  did  as 
verily  believe  the  truth  of  his  opinions  as  yt  there  was  a  God 
in  heaven,  and  yt  he  was  as  settled  in  it  as  the  earth  was  vpon 
the  center,"  and  yet  to  become  president  of  the  college,  vir- 
tually agreed  to  keep  silence  in  respect  to  his  pecuhar  tenets. 


APPENDIX  B  (P.  42) 

Williams  then  speaks  of  his  (first)  going  to  England  '  (to 
do  which,  "not  having  Libertie  of  taking  ship  in  Your  Juris- 
diction, I  was  forced  to  repair  vnto  ye  Dutch  "),  and  of  his 
"  Negociations  with  ye  Parhament,  Councell  of  State,  and  his 
Highnes, ' '  and  then  says  :  "At  my  last  departure  for  Eng- 
land I  was  importuned  by  ye  Nariganset  Sachims  and  espe- 
cially by  Nenekunat  to  present  their  Peticion  to  ye  high 
Sachims  of  England,  yt  they  might  not  be  forced  from  their 
Religion,  and  for  not  changing  their  Religion,  be  invaded  by 
War;  For  they  said  they  were  dayly  visited  with  threatenings 
by  Indians  yt  came  from  about  ye  Massachusetts,  yt  if  they 
would  not  pray,  they  should  be  destroyed  by  War!  "     We  are 


1  Roger  Williams  visited  England  twice  ;  both  times  having  reference 
to  securing  or  confirming  a  charter.  The  first  time  he  embarked  from 
the  Island  of  Manhattoes  (New  York)  in  June,  1643,  and  returned  be- 
fore the  close  of  next  year.  On  the  voyage  thither  he  wrote  the  "  Key  to 
the  Indian  Languages,"  and  while  abroad  he  began  the  celebrated 
"  Bloudy  Tenant  "  controversy  with  John  Cotton.  His  second  departure 
took  place  (by  permission  obtained  with  "considerable  difficulty")  from 
Boston,  in  company  with  Dr.  John  Clarke,  November,  165 1,  only  a  few 
months  after  the  visit  of  the  latter  to  Lynn  and  to  the  Boston  prison.  On 
both  occasions  Williams  was  permitted  by  English  authority  to  land  in 
Boston  without  molestation.  His  second  stay  in  England  was  about  two 
and  a  Half  years,  while  Dr.  Clarke  remained  there  some  twelve  years  in 
the  interests  of  Rhode  Island.  It  will  be  noticed  that  this  letter  was 
written  soon  after  his  second  return. 


254  np:w  England's  struggles 

glad  to  know  thai  the  Indians  received  some  favors  from  "his 
Highnes."  It  would  appear  that  "the  proud  and  fierce" 
Nenekunat,  or  Ninigret,  above  mentioned,  had  some  such 
feelings  toward  the  Christian  religion  as  King  Philip  had  when 
he  took  hold  of  a  button  on  the  missionary  Pvliot's  coat,  and 
said:  "  I  do  not  value  the  gospel  any  more  than  that." 
Philip,  however,  had  a  strong  antipathy  to  Christianity,  and 
in  his  war  showed  a  special  spite  against  the  praying  Indians. 
One  reason,  it  is  said,  why  he  disliked  to  have  any  of  the  In- 
dians b>.come  Christians  was  that  it  made  them  less  obedient 
to  their  kings. 

In  the  succeeding  part  of  AN'illiams'  long  letter,  the  whole 
of  which  was  designed  to  be  of  good  service  to  the  Bay  Col- 
ony, he  offers  several  reasons  for  cultivating  peace  : 

1.  He  thinks  it  "not  only  possible  (according  to  Rom. 
12  :  1 8)  but  very  easie  for  ye  English  to  Hue  and  die  in  peace 
with  all  ye  Natiues  of  this  Countery. ' ' 

2.  "Ye  God  of  Peace  and  Father  of  Mercies  made  these 
Natiues  more  friendly  in  this  Wilderness  then  our  Natiue 
Countrimen  in  our  owne  land  to  vs,"  so  that  they  have  "  en- 
tred  Leauges  of  Loue,  and  to  this  day  continued  peaceable 
commerce  with  vs. ' ' 

3.  A  concern  for  the  name  of  God;  "for  it  Can  not  be 
hid  how  all  England  and  other  Nations  ring  with  ye  glorious 
Conversion  of  ye  Indians  of  New  England." 

4.  "I  beseech  You  forget  not  yt  although  wee  are  apt  to 
pla)-  with  this  plauge  of  War,  more  then  with  ye  other  2, 
Famine  and  Pestilence,  yet  I  beseech  you  consider  how  ye 
present  events  of  all  Wars  yt  euer  haue  bene  in  this  World, 
haue  bene  wonderfully  Fickle,  and  ye  future  Calamities  and 
Revolucions  wonderful!  in  ye  latter  end." 

5.  But  lastly,  if  any  be  yet  Zealous  of  kindling  this  Fire 
for  God,  &c. ,  I  beseech  yt  Gentleman,  whoeuer  he  be,  to 
lay  himselfe  in  ye  Oj^posite  scale  with  one  of  ye  fairest  Buds 
yt  euer  ye  Sun  of  Righteousness  cherished,  Josiah,  yt  most 
Zealous  and  melting-hearted  Reformer;  who  would  to  War 
and  against  Warnings,  and  fell  in  most  vntimely  Death  and 
Lamentations,  and  now  stands  a  piUar  of  Salt  to  all  succeed- 
ing generations. ' ' 

He  concludes  by  observing  that  "all  Indians  are  extremely 
treacherous"  even  "to  their  own   Nation,"  and  then   makes 


APPENDIX    C  255 

solemn  request  that  on  account  of  the  offense  of  a  "  few  in- 
considerable Pagans  and  Beasts,"  nothing  be  done  whereby 
"all  yt  the  gracious  hand  of  the  Lord  hath  so  wonderfully 
planted  in  this  wilderness  should  be  destroyed. ' ' 

Had  these  specific  counsels  always  been  followed  in  the 
treatment  of  Indians,  doubtless  the  horrid  carnage  and  bar- 
barities of  King  Philip's  War,  which  at  one  time  threatened 
largely  to  depopulate  and  destroy  the  New  England  Colonies, 
would  have  been  avoided. 


APPENDIX  C  (P.  54) 

"The  petition  of  divers  of  Dorchester,  Roxberry,  &c. ,  to 
ye  number  of  78,"  thus  reads  :  "As  the  prevayhnge  of  errors 
and  heresies  is  noted  by  our  Saviour  in  the  gospel,  and  else- 
where in  the  Scriptures,  as  a  forerunner  of  God's  judgments, 
and  inasmuch  as  the  errors  of  the  Anabaptists,  where  they  do 
prevayle,  are  not  a  little  dangerous  to  church  and  common- 
wealth, as  the  lamentable  tumults  in  Germany,  when  the  said 
errors  were  grown  unto  a  height,  did  too  manifestlie  witnesse, 
and  such  good  lawes  or  orders  as  are  enacted  amongst  vs 
against  such  persons  havinge  alreadie  bene,  as  wee  are  in- 
formed, a  special  meanes  of  discouraginge  multitudes  of  erro- 
neous persons  from  comminge  ouer  into  this  countrie,  which 
wee  account  noe  small  mercie  of  God  vnto  vs,  and  one  sweet 
and  wholesome  fruite  of  the  sayd  lawes,  it  is  therefore  our 
humble  petition  to  this  honoured  court,  that  such  lawes  or 
orders  as  are  in  force  amongst  vs  against  Anabaptists  or  other 
erroneous  persons,  whereby  to  restraine  the  spreadinge  and 
divulginge  of  theire  errors  amongst  people  here,  may  not  be 
abrogated  and  taken  away,  nor  any  waies  weakened,  but  may 
still  continue  in  their  force  as  now  they  are,  that  soe  there 
may  not  be  a  dore  open  for  such  dangerous  errors  to  infect 
and  spread  in  this  country  as  some  doe  desire.  And  soe  yr 
petitioners  shal  be  ever  bound  to  pray  for  the  spirit  of  wisdom 
and  zeale  to  guide  you  in  all  your  weighty  affayres,  and  the 
gracious  blessing  of  God  through  Christ  to  be  vppon  you 
therein. ' ' 

The  original  of  this  petition,  which  we  quote  from  Felt's 
"Ecclesiastical  History,"  may  be  seen  in  Vol.  X.,  p.  211, 


256  NKW  KN(>LAND'S    STRUGGI^ES 

of  the  "Massachusetts  Archives."      Some   thirty  names  are 
signed  thereto  as  "humble  petitioners." 


APPENDIX   D  (P.  98) 

Instead  of  gratifying  the  wishes  of  the  petitioners  as  ex- 
pressed in  their  pathetic  appeal  of  1660  (referred  to  on  page 
88),  the  king  in  1663  made  known  his  intention  to  send 
commissioners  hither  to  see  how  the  people  observed  their 
Charter,  and  to  '•'  reconcile  differences  at  present  among 
them."  These  commissioners  were  not  at  all  welcomed, 
being  looked  upon  as  agents  to  promote  royalty  and  hierarchy 
rather  than  the  liberties  of  the  Colonies.  They  arrived  in 
Boston  in  July,  1664,  and  in  October  of  the  same  year  the 
Puritan  Court  again  sent  the  king  an  address,  signed  by 
"John  Endecot,  Governor,  in  the  name  and  by  order  of 
ye  Generall  Court  of  ye  Massachusetts."  Endicott  has  been 
called  the  real  father  of  American  independence.  Certainly, 
in  the  spirit  and  principles  of  their  letter  and  of  their  many 
sharp  controversies  with  the  commissioners  which  followed, 
we  can  plainly  see  the  beginnings  of  the  American  Revolution. 
This  address,  which  we  must  here  omit,  must  have  been  very 
disappointing  to  his  Majesty,  who  had  no  doubt  they  would  all 
"have  great  reason  to  acknowledge  our  singular  affection  in 
our  vissiting  them  by  this  our  Commission  and  by  the  good 
eifects  which,  with  God's  blessing,  will  arise  from  it." 

The  king's  commissioners  after  visiting  different  parts  of 
New  England,  expressed  themselves  as  satisfied  with  their  re- 
ception in  other  colonies,  but  were  greatly  displeased  with  the 
"  refractorinesse  of  Massachusetts."^  They  were  especially 
dissatisfied  with  the  replies  which  the  Court  made  to  their  de- 

^  The  exceedingly  interesting  narrative,  which  the  royal  commissioners 

sent  to  his  Majesty,  of  their  visits  and  observations  in  tlie  different  colo- 
nies, may  be  found  in  Hutchinson's  "Collection  of  Papers,"  pp.  412- 
425.  This  work  also  contains  many  other  interesting  old-time  docu- 
ments, such  as  the  Massachusetts  Charter  of  1629  (occupving  over  twenty 
pages)  ;  Mr.  Saltonstall's  letter  to  Messrs.  Cotton  and  Wilson,  relating 
to  the  Lynn  tragedy,  and  their  reply  in  full,  etc.,  etc.  It  is  a  sad  reflec- 
tion that  we  should  have  had  other  volumes  of  like  kind  had  not  young 
America,  in  its  zeal  for  national  independence,  looted  Gov.  Hutchinson's 
house  on  account  of  his  siding  with  the  British  party,  and  destroyed 
"many  ancient  and  very  curious  original  papers." 


APPENDIX    D  257 

mands,  and  hence  assured  them  that  ' '  these  answers  are  so 
farre  from  being  probable  to  satisfy  the  king's  expectation, 
that  wee  feare  they  will  highly  offend  him.  Abuse  not  the 
king' s  clemency  too  much, "  "  We  hold  ourselves, ' '  they  say, 
"obliged  in  duty  to  his  Majesty  and  out  of  a  singular  good 
affection  to  the  welfare  of  this  his  Majesty's  Colony,  to  de- 
clare to  this  Court  that  his  Majestje  will  haue  just  cause  to 
manifest  his  displeasure  against  the  contrivers  of  such  dilatory 
answers  from  whom  his  majestje  doeth  expect  a  more  chear- 
full  obedience  in  dutifuU  performances."  After  further  sharp 
controversy  they  decide  ' '  to  reduce  all  the  discourse  hereot 
into  one  question  whereunto  we  expect  your  positive  answer 
which  we  shall  faithfully  report  to  his  Majesty,  whether  you 
acknowledge  his  Majesty's  Commission  wherein  we  are  nomi- 
nated Commissioners,  to  be  of  full  force  to  all  the  intents  and 
purposes  therein  contained.  Tell  us  plainly  and  truly  whether 
you  will  submit  to  that  Commission  without  any  shuffling. 
Otherwise,  it  is  time  for  us  to  be  gone  out  of  the  country." 
After  receiving  the  Court's  protest,  they  say  in  reply :  "  Wee 
shall  not  lose  more  of  our  labors  upon  you,  but  refer  it  to  his 
Majesty's  wisdom,  who  is  of  power  enough  to  make  himself 
to  be  obeyed  in  all  his  dominions. ' ' 

Subsequently  the  General  Court  sent  another  address  to 
the  king  wherein  they  thus  apologize  for  any  offense  they  may 
unintentionally  have  given  him  in  their  last  petition.  "  Wee 
confesse  that  what  wee  then  presented  was  our  feares  of  what 
wee  did  then  rather  foresee  than  feele ;  but  now  to  our  greife 
and  great  sorrow  of  heart  wee  find  (and  wee  hope  your 
Majesty  in  due  time  will  see)  that  the  gentlemen  sent  hither 
in  the  capacitje  of  commissioners,  especially  three  of  them 
.  .  .  have  steered  a  course  so  different  from,  if  not  contrary  to, 
your  majestjes  gracious  expressions  and  limitations  in  your 
royal  letters  and  instructions,  .  .  .  your  poore  subjects 
threatened  with  ruine,  reproached  with  the  names  of  rebells, 
and  your  gouernment,  established  by  charter,  and  our  privi- 
ledges,  violated  and  undermined  ;  causeless  complaints  from 
the  Indians  receaved  and  countenanced,  in  so  much  that  the 
very  carriage  and  deportment  of  many  of  the  heathen  is 
changed  toward  us  ;  our  injurious  and  licentious  neighbors 
animated  against  us,  a  notorious  malefactor  protected  from 
Justice,  some  of  your  faithfull  subjects  dispossessed   of  the 


258  NEW  RNGLAND'S    STRUGGI.KS 

lands  and  goods  without  hearing  them  speake  in  their  cases, 
the  vnity  of  the  English  colonyes  (which  is  the  wall  and  bul- 
worke,  vnder  God,  against  the  heathen)  discountenanced,  re- 
proached, and  undermined,  our  bounds  and  limits  dipt  and 
shortened,  seuerall  tounes  in  our  north  border  already  (so  far 
as  in  them  Ijesj  taken  from  us,"  etc.  They  then  remark  that 
*'  to  be  placed  vpon  the  sandy  foundations  of  a  blinde  obedi- 
ence vnto  that  arbitrary,  absolute,  and  unlimited  power  which 
these  gentlemen  would  impose  vpon  us  .  .  .  as  it  is  contrary 
to  your  majestjes  gracious  expressions  and  the  libertjes  of 
Englishmen,  so  wee  can  (not)  see  reason  to  submit  thereto." 

Although  our  Puritan  fathers  were  assured  that  if  they  did 
not  yield  obedience  they  would  have  cause  given  them  to  re- 
pent of  it,  "  for  his  Majesty  will  not  sit  down  by  the  affronts 
which  he  hath  received,"  yet  the  commissioners,  having 
sought  in  vain  "  to  find  out  a  way  to  bring  down  the  pride  of 
Massachusetts,"  were  disappointed  that  the  example  of  sub- 
mission to  the  king's  instructions  by  the  other  colonies,  had 
not  "abated  the  refractorinesse  of  this  Colony."  They 
finally  warned  the  Court  to  "remember  that  the  King's 
pardon  of  the  late  rebellion  is  conditional,  and  the  authors 
of  the  opposition  among  you  must  expect  the  punishment 
awarded  to  the  rebels  in  England,  and  you  well  know  their 
fate. ' ' 

At  length  the  king  recalled  the  commissioners,  and  also 
ordered  five  of  the  Massachusetts  authorities,  including  Gov- 
ernor Bellingham,  to  present  themselves  before  him  that  he 
might  hear  both  sides  of  the  controversy  and  thus  "pass  his 
final  judgment  and  determination  thereon."  This  mandate 
the  Court  virtually  declined  to  obey,  alleging  that  they  could 
add  nothing  to  the  substance  of  the  explanations  of  their 
course  of  opposition  to  the  commissioners  which  they  had 
already  forwarded,  and  that  the  ablest  persons  they  might  send 
would  be  unable  to  declare   their  case  more  fully.'     Though 


'  In  view  of  the  virtual  refusal  of  the  Court  to  oDey  his  Majesty's  com- 
mands, it  is  not  strange  that  about  this  time  an  Knglish  agent  wrote  home 
that  the  king's  letters  were  of  no  more  account  in  Massachusetts  than  an 
old  London  Gazette  !  Probably  the  needs  of  an  impoverished  treasury, 
the  distresses  arising  from  the  great  plague  and  fir^,  in  London  (1665, 
1666),  and  possibly  the  Merry  ]\Ionarch's  devotion  to  his  mistresses,  pre- 
vented the  speedy  reduction  of  this  refractory  "province"  (which  loved 
to  call  itself  a  State  or  Commonwealth)  to  obedience  by  force  and  arms. 


APPENDIX   E  259 

the  Court  at  different  times  expressed  a  willingness  to  accede 
to  his  Majesty's  wishes,  there  was  one  thing,  they  told  him, 
they  could  not  do,  namely,  consent  to  any  repealing  of  the 
laws  which  "will  make  us  renounce  the  professed  cause  of 
our  first  coming  hither."  As  a  practical  proof  or  indica- 
tion of  loyalty,  the  legislature,  instead  of  sending  the  required 
deputation,  presented  to  the  king  several  masts,  "thirty-four 
yards  long,"  for  his  navy  (which  to  the  English  admiralty 
was  ' '  a  blessing  mighty  unexpected ' '  — Pepys),  and  some  years 
afterward,  in  1676,  in  obedience  to  the  king's  behest,  they  sent 
two  agents  on  a  special  errand,  making  request  for  their 
speedy  return  ;  and  the  next  year  they  presented  his  Majesty 
' '  tenn  barrells  of  cranberries,  two  hogsheads  of  special  good 
sampe,  and  three  thousand  of  codfish." 

Quite  a  full  account  of  this  contest  between  the  king  and 
this  refractory  province  is  given  in  Hutchinson's  "  History  of 
the  Colony  of  Massachusetts  Bay,"  in  the  Appendix  of 
Hubbard's  "History  of  New  England,"  and  especially  in 
Vol  IV.,  Part  n.,  of  the  "  Massachusetts  Colony  Records." 


APPENDIX  E  (P.  172) 

BACKUS    ON    THE    FEDERAL    CONSTITUTION 

In  Backus'  "Diary"  is  this  record  :  "A  new  Constitution 
for  the  United  States  of  America  was  finished  at  Philadelphia, 
September  17,  1787,  and  our  town  [Middleborough]  met  on 
December  17,  and  chose  four  delegates  to  meet  in  Boston, 
January  9,  1788,  with  others  in  Convention,  to  establish  or 
reject  it,  of  which  delegates  I  was  the  first,  without  the  least 
motion  of  mine  that  way.  When  I  was  first  informed  of  it, 
on  December  20,  I  thought  I  should  not  go,  but  as  religious 
liberty  is  concerned  in  the  affair,  and  many  were  earnest  for 
my  going,  I  consented.  .  .  Elder  Stillman  and  I,  with  twelve 
Congregational  ministers,  voted  for  it." 

President  Manning's  interest  in  this  matter  led  him  fre- 
quently to  be  present  on  this  occasion,  whereupon  he  was  re- 
quested by  Governor  Hancock  to  "close  the  solemn  convo- 
cation with  thanksgiving  and  prayer,"  which  he  did  "in  a 
strain  of  exalted  patriotism  and  fervid  devotion  which  awak- 


26o  NEW  England's  sTRrGGLP:s 

ened  in  the  Assembly  a  mingled  sentiment  of  admiration  and 
awe."  As  is  well  known,  the  majority  in  this  State  in  favor 
of  the  Constitution  was  not  large,  one  hundred  and  eighty- 
seven  voting  for  it,  and  one  hundred  and  sixty-eight  against 
it.  'Hie  Middleborough  delegation  was  etiually  divided  on 
this  (|uestion. 

I'^lder  Backus,  in  his  address  before  the  Convention  (which 
he  read,  contrary  to  his  view  of  preac/ii/ig)  gives  three  prin- 
cipal reasons  for  his  favoring  the  Constitution. 

I.     THE  ABSENCE  OF  ANY   RELIGIOUS  TEST. 

"  Many  appear  to  be  much  concerned  about  it,  but  nothing 
is  more  evident  both  in  reason  and  the  Holy  Scriptures,  that 
religion  is  ever  a  matter  between  God  and  individuals  ;  and 
therefore  no  man  or  men  can  impose  any  religious  test  with- 
out invading  the  essential  prerogatives  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ.  Ministers  first  assumed  this  power  under  the  Chris- 
tian name,  and  then  Constantine  approved  of  the  practice 
when  he  adopted  the  profession  of  Christianity  as  an  engine 
of  State  policy.  And  let  the  history  of  all  nations  be  searched 
from  that  day  to  this,  and  it  will  appear  that  the  imposing  of 
religious  tests  hath  been  the  greatest  engine  of  tyranny  in  the 
world." 

II.     PROVISION     FOR     THE    ABOLITION     OF     SLAVERY     AND     THE 
SLAVE  TRADE. 

"  I  believe  that  according  to  my  capacity  no  man  abhors 
that  wicked  practice  (importation  of  slaves)  more  than  I  do. 
I  would  gladly  make  use  of  all  lawful  means  toward  the 
abolishing  of  slavery  in  all  parts  of  the  land.  .  .  In  the 
Articles  of  Confederation  no  provision  w\is  made  to  hinder 
the  importation  of  slaves  into  any  of  these  States,  but  a  door 
is  now  open  hereafter  to  do  it,  and  each  State  is  at  liberty 
now  to  abolish  slavery  as  soon  as  they  please.  .  .  Thus 
slavery  grows  more  and  more  odious  through  the  world,  and, 
as  an  honorable  gentleman,  Mr.  Dawes,  said  some  days  ago, 
'  though  we  cannot  say  that  slavery  is  struck  with  apoplexy, 
yet  we  may  hope  it  will  die  of  consumption.'  " 

III.     ABSENCE  OF   HEREDITARY  SUCCESSION  OF   POWER. 

''Another  great  advantage  in  the  Constitution  before  us  is 


APPENDIX    F  261 

its  excluding  all  titles  of  nobility,  or  hereditary  succession  of 
power,  which  hath  been  a  main  engine  of  tyranny  in  foreign 
countries.  .  .  In  the  Constitution  now  proposed  to  us,  a 
power  is  reserved  to  the  people  constitutionally  to  reduce 
every  officer  again  to  a  private  station;  and  what  a  guard  is 
this  against  their  invasion  of  others'  rights  or  abusing  of  their 
power  !  Such  a  door  is  now  opened  for  the  establishment  of 
righteous  government  and  for  securing  equal  liberty  as  never 
was  before  opened  to  any  people  upon  earth. ' ' 

There  were  about  twenty  Baptist  members  in  this  Conven- 
tion and  about  two- thirds  of  them  voted  against  the  Con- 
stitution, fearing  that  it  did  not  give  sufficient  security  to  re- 
ligious liberty.  Backus  doubtless  had  these  fears  at  first,  but 
on  reflection  they  disappeared.  He  says:  "Each  delegate 
had  full  liberty,  in  his  turn,  to  say  all  he  pleased,  by  means 
of  which  I  obtained  much  more  light  about  the  extensive 
affairs  of  our  country,  the  nature  of  the  proposed  Constitu- 
tion, and  the  security  of  the  rights  of  the  people  therein, 
than  I  had  when  I  went  from  home,  and  therefore  voted  for 
it.  And  yet  Elder  Alden,  of  Bellingham,  Elder  Rathburn, 
of  Pittsfield,  and  Elder  Tingley,  of  Waterbury,  County  of 
York,  all  voted  against  it. ' ' 

From  the  above,  it  would  seem  that  Dr.  Armitage  in  his 
"  History  of  the  Baptists  "(p.  808;  revised  edition,  p.  428)  is 
mistaken  when  he  says  that  "Isaac  Backus  took  about  the 
same  ground  that  Patrick  Henry  had  taken  in  Virginia  [in  not 
voting  for  the  Constitution]  because  he  could  not  see  that  it 
sufficiently  guaranteed  religious  liberty.  Manning  and  Still- 
man  were  wiser  in  their  generation."  Surely  Backus  in  this 
matter,  belonged  to  "  their  generation." 


APPENDIX  F  (P.  212) 

Acts  of  exemption,  so  called,  were  yielded  by  the  author- 
ities with  great  reluctance  and,  possibly,  not  without  some 
violence  done  to  cherished  principle.  Both  Pilgrim  and 
Puritan  felt  it  extremely  hazardous  and  hence  found  it  very 
difficult  to  give  up  the  practice  of  taxation  for  the  support  of 
the  gospel  ministry,  and  the  former,  perhaps,  clung  to  this 
as  tenaciously  as  the  latter.      In  Hutchinson's  "History"  we 


262  NEW  kngi.and's  .struggles 

read  that  I'homas  Hinckley,  the  last  Governor  of  Plymouth 
Colony,  "complained  of  this,  as  one  great  grievance  that, 
not  being  allowed  to  make  rates  for  the  support  of  the  min- 
istry, the  people  would  sink  into  barbarism."  ' 

The  first  exemption  act  in  Massachusetts  was  pubHshed 
Dec.  30,  1727,  and  had  reference  solely  to  Episcopalians. 
It  was  passed  the  preceding  November,  the  next  month  as 
Backus  says,  after  "the  great  earthquake."  He  mentions 
these  two  events  together,  almost  seeming  thus  to  imply  that 
it  took  an  earthepiake  to  rouse  the  Massachusetts  authorities 
to  a  sense  of  their  duty.-' 

Plymouth  Colony  early  defined  its  attitude  toward  Episco- 
palians in  its  response"  in  1665,  to  the  royal  commissioners  : 
"We  would  not  deny  a  liberty  to  any  according  to  the  pro]:)- 
osition  fof  the  commissioners)  that  are  truly  conscientious 
altho'  differing  from  us  ^especially  where  his  Majestye  com- 
mands it),  they  maintaining  an  able  preaching  ministry  for 
carrying  on  of  publicke  Sabl)ath  worship  which  we  doubt  not 
is  his  Majesties  intent,  and  withdraw  not  from  paying  their 
due  proportions  of  maintenance  to  such  ministers  as  are 
orderly  settled  in  the  place  where  they  live,  until  they  have 
one  of  their  owne,  and  that  in  such  places  as  are  capable  of 
maintaining  the  worship  of  (lod  in  two  distinct  congrega- 
tions." 

The  exemptive  Acts  of  Massachusetts,  relating  to  Baptists 
and  Quakers,  a  sketch  of  some  of  which  we  now  jjroceed  to 
give,  may  be  found  in  full  in  the  different  volumes  of 
"The  Acts  and  Resolves  of  the  Province  of  Massachusetts 
Bay,"  as  edited  by  Hon.  Ellis  Ames.  The  dates  given  to 
these  laws  refer  generally  to  the  time  when  they  were  pub- 
lished. 


'  We  would  like  to  know  what  response  Gov.  Hinckley  made  or  could 
make  to  the  proposal  submitted  to  him  in  1686,  by  Edward  Randolph, 
secretary  under  Andros,  which  thus  reads:  "Perhaps  it  will  be  as 
reasonable  to  move  that  your  colony  should  be  rated  to  pay  our  minister 
of  the  Church  of  England  who  now  preaches  in  Boston,  and  you  hear 
him  not,  as  to  make  the  Quakers  pay  in  your  colony."  Randolph  even 
proposed  to  rate  the  three  meeting-houses  in  Boston  to  "pay  twenty 
shillings  a  week  each  out  of  their  contributions,  toward  defraying  of  our 
church  charges."  See  Hutchinson's  "History"  Vol.  I.,  pp.  350,  357; 
also  his  "Collection  of  Bajiers,"  p.  550. 

'•'See  Backus'  "History,"  \'ol.  I.,  p.  516;  and  for  the  full  text  of  this 
first  exemption  law,  see  "Acts  and  Resolves,"  Vol.  IT.,  p.  459. 


APPENDIX    F  263 

1.  Act  of  June  24,  1728  ;  to  continue  five  years. 
"Whereas,  Some  of  the  inhabitants  of  this  Province  called 

Anabaptists,  and  others  called  Quakers,  refuse  to  pay  any 
part  or  proportion  of  such  taxes  as  are  from  time  to  time 
assessed  for  the  support  of  the  ministry  in  the  several  towns 
whereto  they  belong,  alleging  a  scruple  of  conscience  for 
such  their  refusal  ;  and  thereupon  frequent  application  has 
been  made  to  this  Court  for  their  relief;  Be  it  therefore 
enacted  .  .  .  That  from  and  after  the  publication  of  this  Act, 
none  of  the  persons  commonly  called  Anabaptists,  nor  any 
of  those  commonly  called  Quakers,  that  are  or  shall  be  en- 
rolled or  entered  in  their  respective  Societies  as  members 
thereof,  and  who  allege  a  scruple  of  conscience  as  the  reason 
of  their  refusal  to  pay  any  part  or  proportion  of  such  taxes 
as  are  from  time  to  time  assessed  for  the  support  of  the  min- 
ister or  ministers  of  the  churches  established  by  the  laws  of 
this  Province  in  the  town  or  place  where  they  dwell,  shall 
have  their  polls  taxed  toward  the  support  of  such  minister  or 
ministers  ;  nor  shall  their  bodies  be  at  any  time  taken  in  exe- 
cution to  satisfy  any  such  ministerial  rate  or  tax  assessed  upon 
their  estates  or  faculty  ;  provided  that  such  persons  do  usually 
attend  the  meetings  of  their  respective  Societies  assembhng 
upon  the  Lord's  Day  for  the  worship  of  God,  and  that  they 
live  within  five  miles  of  the  place  of  such  meeting. ' ' 

For  comments  on  this  Act,  see  pp.  117,  154.  By  other 
provisions  of  this  Act,  Quakers  were  obliged  to  subscribe  a 
declaration  of  fidehty  and  also  a  formal  profession  of  Chris- 
tian belief      See  "Acts  and  Resolves,"  Vol.  II.,  p.  494. 

2.  Amendment  of  the  above  Act,  Dec.  24,  1729,  exempt- 
ing estates  as  well  as  polls.  See  ' '  Acts  and  Resolves, ' '  Vol. 
n.,  p.  543- 

"The  proper  estates,  real  and  personal  of  the  aforemen- 
tioned Anabaptists  and  Quakers,  being  in  their  own  hands 
and  under  their  actual  management  and  improvement,  shall 
be  exempted  in  the  same  manner  and  under  the  same  condi- 
tions and  limitations  that  their  polls  are  or  were  ' '  under  the 
previous  Act.  This  Act  was  "to  continue  till  May,  1733, 
and  no  longer. ' ' 

3.  Act  of  July  6,  1734.  See  "Acts  and  Resolves,"  Vol. 
II.,  p.  714  ;  and  for  comments  on  the  same,  see  p.  155  of  this 
volume. 


264  NEW  England's  struggles 

"Be  it  enacted  .  .  .  That  from  and  after  tlic  ])ul)lication 
of  this  Act,  none  of  the  persons  called  Anal)aptists,  who 
allege  a  scruple  of  conscience  as  the  reason  of  their  refusal  to 
pay  any  part  or  proportion  of  such  taxes  as  are  from  time  to 
time  assessed  for  the  support  of  the  minister  or  ministers  of 
the  churches  established  by  the  laws  of  this  Province,  in  the 
town  where  they  dwell,  shall  have  their  polls  or  estate,  real  or 
])ersonal,  in  their  own  hands  and  under  their  actual  improve- 
ment, taxed  toward  the  support  of  such  minister  or  minis- 
ters, or  for  the  building  of  any  meeting-house  or  place  of 
public  worship. 

"And  to  the  intent  that  it  may  be  the  better  known  what 
persons  are  of  that  persuasion,  and  who  are  exempted  by 
this  Act — Be  it  enacted  .  .  .  That  the  assessors  of  each  town 
where  any  of  the  said  Anabaptists  live,  or  their  lands  in  their 
own  actual  improvement  lie,  shall  on  or  before  the  20th  of 
July  next,  and  from  thence  annually  some  time  before  the 
20th  of  April,  take  a  list  of  all  such  persons,  and  forthwith 
transmit  the  same  to  the  clerk  of  the  town,  which  list  shall  be 
entered  on  the  record  of  such  town  by  the  clerk  who  is  here- 
by empowered  and  directed  to  enter  the  same  accordingly, 
that  so  any  of  the  people  called  Anabaptists,  or  any  members 
of  their  Society  thereto  appointed,  may  view  such  list,  and 
have  a  copy  thereof  if  they  desire  the  same,  paying  only  six- 
pence therefor  ;  and  if  any  person  of  that  denomination  shall 
be  omitted  in  such  list  by  the  assessors  taken,  and  the 
assessors  shall  be  certified  thereof  in  writing,  under  the  hands 
of  two  principal  members  of  that  persuasion,  appointed 
thereto  by  the  respective  Societies  some  time  before  the  loth 
of  September  next,  and  from  thence  some  time  before  the 
loth  of  May  then  next  after,  that  such  persons  not  inserted 
in  their  list  they  believe  to  be  conscientiously  of  their  per- 
suasion, and  that  they  do  frequently  and  usually  attend  their 
meetings  for  the  worship  of  God  on  the  Lord's  Day,  the 
assessors  shall  also  exempt  the  said  ])ersons  so  omitted,  and 
their  estates  in  their  actual  management  and  improvement, 
as  well  as  all  others  inserted  in  the  said  lists,  from  all  rates  and 
taxes  by  the  said  assessors  to  be  made  for  the  support  ot 
the  minister  or  ministers  in  their  towns,  or  for  erecting  places 
of  public  worship  ;   this  act  to  continue  Cwc  vears, "  etc. 

4.    The  above  act  substantially  revived  and   published  Tuly 


APPENDIX    F  265 

16,    1740,   the   same   to  remain   in  force  seven   years.      See 
"Acts  and  Resolves,"  Vol.  II.,  p.   1022. 

5.  Act  of  July  2,  1747,  to  continue  in  force  ten  years. 
See  "Acts  and  Resolves,"  Vol.  III.,  p.  362.  This  is  in 
general  but  a  repetition  of  the  former  Act,  but  it  was  espe- 
cially grateful  to  the  Baptists,  as  it  was  to  stand  for  a  longer 
term  of  years,  and  was  secured,  not  as  the  former  ones  by  re- 
peated petitionings,  but  by  the  "  good  will  and  mere  motion ' ' 
of  the  General  Assembly  (see  p.  158). 

But  alas — 

6.  In  a  little  over  five  years  the  authorities,  as  Backus  says, 
"broke  in  upon  their  own  law,"  and  enacted  in  addition  to 
the  previous  law  the  oppressive  and  obnoxious  Act  of  Jan.  6, 
1753.  See  "Acts  and  Resolves,"  Vol.  III.,  p.  644.  Our 
readers  will  find  this  Act  detailed  at  large  and  severely  com- 
mented on  in  Mr.  Proctor's  "  Memorial  and  Remonstrance," 
p.   158,  ctseq.,  of  this  volume. 

7.  Act  of  Jan.  26,  1758.  See  "Acts  and  Resolves," 
Vol.  IV.,  p.  67.  This  law  was  similar  to  the  previous  one 
and  equally  burdensome.  It  was  to  continue  in  force  for 
three  years,  though  subsequent  legislation,  as  we  shall  see, 
lengthened  that  term.  Concerning  this  law  Backus  says  : 
"  No  tongue  or  pen  can  fully  describe  all  the  evils  that  were 
practiced  under  it."      Its  third  section  reads  as  follows  : 

"Be  it  further  enacted.  That  no  person  in  any  town,  dis- 
trict, precinct,  or  parish,  as  aforesaid,  shall  be  so  esteemed 
or  accounted  to  be  an  Anabaptist,  or  to  have  his  or  her  poll 
or  polls,  or  any  estate  to  him  or  her  belonging,  exempted 
from  paying  a  proportionable  part  of  the  ministerial  taxes  that 
shall  be  raised  thereon,  but  such  whose  names  shall  be  con- 
tained in  a  list  or  lists  to  be  taken  and  exhibited  on  or  before 
the  i^'  day  of  February  next,  and  afterward  during  the  con- 
tinuance of  this  Act,  on  or  before  the  20"'  day  of  July,  annu- 
ally to  the  assessors  of  such  town,  district,  precinct,  or  parish, 
and  signed  by  three  principal  members  of  the  Anabaptist 
church  to  which  he  or  they  belong,  and  the  minister  thereof, 
if  any  there  be,  who  shall  certify  that  the  persons  whose  names 
are  inserted  in  said  Hst  or  Hsts  are  really  belonging  thereto, 
and  that  they  verily  beheve  them  to  be  conscientiously  of 
their  persuasion,  and  that  they  do  frequently  and  usually  at- 
tend the  pubhc  worship  in  such  church  on  the  Lord's  Day." 

X 


266  NEW  en'glaxd's  struggles 

8.  The  above  exemption  Act  revived  Jan.  31,  1761,  to  be 
continued  for  ten  years.  See  "Acts  and  Resolves,"  \'ol. 
IV.,  p.  420. 

9.  Act  of  Jan.  31,  1771  ;  to  be  continued  three  years. 
See  "Acts  and  Resolves,"  Vol.  V.,  p.  iii.  This  exemptive 
Act  is  in  some  respects  more  favorable  than  the  preceding 
ones.  Instead  of  using  the  offensive  term  Anabaptists,  they 
now  speak  of  "the  people  called  Antipedobaptists,"  and  for 
a  wider  application  they  substitute  the  word  congregation  for 
church.      Thus  this  last  Act  exempts  those  persons  whose 

"  Names  shall  be  contained  in  a  list  or  lists  which  shall  be 
exhibited  to  the  assessors  ...  on  or  before  the  i"  day  of 
September  in  that  year,  and  signed  by  three  principal  mem- 
bers of  the  Antipedobaptist  congregation  to  which  he  or  she 
belongs,  and  the  minister  thereof  (if  any  there  be),  who  shall 
therein  certify  that  the  persons  whose  names  are  contained  in 
the  said  list  or  lists  are  really  belonging  thereto  ;  that  they 
verily  believe  them  to  be  conscientiously  of  their  persuasion, 
and  that  they  do  frequently  and  usually,  when  able,  attend 
the  pubhc  worship  of  God  in  such  congregation  on  the  Lord's 
Day." 

This  Act  also  graciously  empowers  the  majority  of  qualified 
voters  (Quakers  and  Antipedobaptists  excepted)  in  any  legally 
called  meeting  in  a  town,  district,  precinct,  or  parish. 

"To  exempt  and  excuse  from  ministerial  taxes,  or  taxes  for 
building  or  repairing  any  meeting-house  or  place  of  public  wor- 
ship, the  polls  and  estates  respectively  of  any  person  or  persons 
dwelling  or  having  any  rateable  estate  in  such  town,  district, 
precinct,  or  parish,  who  profess  themselves  to  be  Quakers  or 
Antipedobaptists,  altho  no  such  list  or  lists  as  is  before  men- 
tioned in  this  Act  should  be  exhibited  to  the  assessors  of  any 
town,  district,  precinct,  or  parish." 

This  law  was,  nevertheless,  far  from  being  satisfactory  to 
the  "Antipedobaptists,"  for  as  Backus  remarks,  "the  word 
conscientiously  was  still  retained,  and  the  certificates  were  to 
be  given  annually  to  the  assessors."  Few,  we  think,  must 
be  the  instances  where  a  "  town,  district,  precinct,  or  parish," 
was  pleased  to  exempt  Baptists  without  any  certificates. 

10.  Act  of  July  I,  1774;  to  be  in  force  for  three  years 
(see  "Acts  and  Resolves,"  \'ul.  \'..  ]).  392),  yet  was  con- 
tinued in   operation  after  the  adoption  of  the  Constitution. 


APPENDIX   G  267 

Like  the  preceding  Act,  this  exempts  such  Quakers  or  Anti- 
pedobaptists 

"Whose  names  shall  be  contained  in  a  list  or  lists  taken 
and  signed  by  three  members  of  some  Quaker  or  Antipedo- 
baptist  society  or  congregation  who  shall  be  chosen  by  said 
society  or  congregation  for  that  purpose  (one  whereof  to  be 
the  minister  where  there  is  any),  who  shall  certify  for  sub 
stance  with  respect  to  the  people  called  Antipedobaptists  : 

"  We,  the  subscribers,  being  chosen  a  committee  by  the  so- 
ciety of  the  people  called  Antipedobaptists  who  meet  together 

for  religious  worship  on  the  Lord's  Day  in ,  to  exhibit 

a  list  or  lists  of  the  names  of  such  persons  as  belong  to  said 

society  or  congregation,   do  certify  that do 

belong  to  said  society  or  congregation,  and  that  they  do  fre- 
quently and  usually,  when  able,  attend  with  us  in  our  meet- 
ings for  religious  worship  on  the  Lord' s  Day,  and  we  do  verily 
believe  are,  with  respect  to  the  ordinance  of  baptism,  of  the 
same  religious  sentiments  with  us. 

A.  B. 

"Signed         C.  D.       Committee. 

E.  F. 

"Dated ." 


The  next  Act  of  exemption,  as  we  may  properly  name  it, 
which  favored  not  only  Baptists  and  Quakers,  but  all  other 
Protestant  Christian  sects,  is  that  which  is  found  in  the  Third 
Article  of  the  Bill  of  Rights  in  the  Constitution  which  was 
adopted  by  Massachusetts  in  1780,  and  which  declares  that 
"Every  denomination  of  Christians,  demeaning  themselves 
peaceably  and  as  good  subjects  of  the  Commonwealth,  shall 
be  equally  under  the  protection  of  the  law,  and  no  subordi- 
nation OF  ANY  ONE  SECT  OR  DENOMINATION  TO  ANOTHER 
SHALL  EVER  BE  ESTABLISHED  BY   LAW." 


APPENDIX  G 

colonial  governors  and  english  sovereigns 

Governors  of  Plymouth  Colony. 

John  Carver,  1620  to  21. 

WiUiam  Bradford,  1621  to  33,  35,  37,  39  to  44,  45  to  57. 


268  NEW  ENGLAND'S   STRUGGLES 

Edward  Winslow,  1633,  36,  44. 
Thomas  Prince,   1634,  38,  57  to  73. 
Josiah  Winslow,   1673  to  80. 
Thomas  Hinckley,  1681  to  86,  89  to  92. 

Massachusetts  Governors. 

John  Winthrop,  1629  to  34,  37  to  40,  42  to  44,  46  to  49. 

Thomas  Dudley,  1634,  40,  45,  50. 

John  Haynes,  1635. 

Henry  Vane,  1636. 

Richard  Bellingham,  1641,  54,  65  to  72. 

John  Endicott,  1644,  49,  51  to  53,  55  to  65. 

John  Leverett,  1673  to  78. 

Simon  Bradstreet.  1678  to  86,  89  to  92. 

(Andros'  usurpation,  1687  to  89.) 

English  Sovereigns 

James  I.,  1603. 

Charles  I.,  1625  to  1650. 

Cromwellian  Protectorate,  1653  to  1660. 

Charles  H.,  1660. 

James  H.,  1685. 

William  and  Mary,   1689. 

Anne,  1702. 

(ieorge  I.,  1714. 

Ceorge  II. ,  1 727. 

George  HI.,  1760. 


INDEX. 


Acts  and  Resolves  of  the  Province 
of  Massachusetts  Bay..  ..166,  207,  262 

Adams',  Charles  Fiancis,  criti- 
cisms of  the  Puritans..30,  ry2,  144,  146 

Adams,  John :  early  attitude  to- 
ward the  State  Church,  188 ; 
more  liberal  views  in  later  life, 
243 ;  what  he  endured  for  our 
civil  liberty 243 

Adams,  Samuel,  letter  of  Isaac 
Backus  to 190 

Alden,  Rev.  Noah,  service  for  re- 
ligious freedom 229 

Anabaptism:  early  appearance  of, 
in  this  country,  21 ;  termed  a 
scab,  26 ;  early  attempted  sup- 
pressions of 45 

Anabaptists :  how  characterized 
by  their  opponents,  26,  51 ;  laws 
enacted  against,  53,  131,  132;  pe- 
titions against,  54,  255  ;  petitions 
in  favor  of,  53,  96 ;  required  to 
give  certificates,  159, 167, 168, 172, 
242;  their  refusal  to  give  them 
in 181 

Andros,  Gov.  Edmund,  his  Epis- 
copal rule 148 

Antinomianism,  troublesome  to 
the  early  Puritans 51 

Argument,  able  to  remove  a 
mountain,  reiiuired 57 

Armitage,  Thomas,  History  of  the 
Baptists,  13 ;  mistaken  on  one 
point 261 

Arnold,  Samuel  G.,  History  of 
Rhode  Island 203 

Arnold,  Thomas,  favored  iden- 
tity of  Church  and  State 31 

Ashfield  Baptists :  sufferings  of, 
176,  192  ;  petitions  of,  207  ;  peti- 
tions in  aid  of,  208  ;  responses  t(j 
these  petitions 208 

Atonement,  as  defined  by  the 
Puritan  divines 59 

Attleborough,  important  legal 
ease  connected  with 237 


Backus,  Isaac  :  agent  for  the  Bap- 
tist churches,  179;  mission  to 
Philadelphia,  186  ;  action  touch- 
ing the  State  constitution,  223, 
and  the  Federal  constitution, 
259 ;  as  a  historian,  181,  222 : 
as  a  champion  of  religious  lib- 
erty, 179,  180;  threatened  with  a 
halter  and  the  gallows,  197; 
relatives  of,  persecuted  as  sepa- 
ratists, 168,  172;  aversion  of  to 
slavery,  191,  260;  petitions,  me- 
morials, and  letters  of,  179,  182, 
184,  187,  189,  191,  211,  220,  222,  223, 
229,  230 ;  monument  erected  to, 
180;  memorial  pamphlet  relat- 
ing to 249 

Baldwin,  Dr.  Thomas,  important 
actor  in  the  cause  of  liberty 244 

Bancroft,  George,  on  Backus  as  a 
historian 181 

Baptists :  early  emigrate  to  Amer- 
ica, 21 ;  their  sufferings  in  Eng- 
land, 143 ;  patriotism  of  Ameri- 
can, 195,  196.    See  Anabaptists. 

"  Baxter,  Josiah,"  scandalous 
hoax  relating  to 95 

Baylies,  Francis,  History  of  New 
Plymouth,  127,  139. 

Belknap,  Jeremy,  History  of  New 
Hampshire 204 

Benedict,  David,  History  of  the 
Baptists 13,  45,  267 

Bliss,  Leonard,  History  of  Reho- 
both 129 

Book  of  Common  Prayer,  Puri- 
tans' feeling  toward 90 

Boston,  First  Baptist  Church  of : 
origin  and  early  trials  of,  92 ; 
some  of  its  home  friends,  96,  100, 
107  •  its  English  sympathizers, 
97 ;  early  home  at  Noddle's  Is- 
land, 99 ;  first  meeting-house  of, 
110:  doors  of,  nailed  up Ill 

Bradford,  William,  long  and  toler- 
ant reign  of 127 

269 


270 


INDEX 


Branding  of  Quakers 73,  71,  141 

Brattle  family  of  Boston 210 

Briscoe,  Nathaniel,  Anabaptistic 
book 48,  215 

Brown  brothers,  of  Salem,  sent 
back  to  England 18 

Brown,  John :  eolonial  commis- 
sioner, 128  ;  opi)osed  to  coercion 
in  religious  matters 129 

Burning  at  the  stake,  in  Massa- 
chusetts and  in  New  York 5'.» 

Burrage,  H.  S.,  History  of  New 
England  Baptists 113,  173,  17'.» 

Butler,  Ezra,  of  Vermont,  notice 
of 203 

Callender,  Elisha,  ordained  by 
help  of  Congregational  minis- 
ters   117 

Calvin,  John,  dislikes  the  leavings 
of  popish  dregs 15 

Cambridge  platform,  favors  coer- 
cion  56,  107 

Capital  offenses,  in  England  and 
in  the  colonies 141 

Cathcart,  William,  Baptist  Ency- 
clopa?dia 13,  114 

Certificates  for  exemption :  cost 
of,  194 ;  deemed  oppressive  and 
humiliating 117,  168 

Chaplin,  Jeremiaii,  Life  of  Henry 
Dunster 147 

Charles  II. :  interdicts  Quaker  per- 
secution, 87,  88  ;  mandate  of,  con- 
cerning liberty  of  conscience, 
90,  111;  Court's  petitions  to,  88, 
256,  257 ;  controversy  of,  with 
the  Puritan  authorities 256 

Charter  of  William  and  Mary,  in 
1692 1.52 

Chauncy,  Charles:  a  Pedobap- 
tist  immersionist,  25 ;  professed 
fixedness  of  views,  25,  253  ;  yet 
willing  to  ignore  them 253 

Children  of  the  covenant,  born 
church-members 58 

Church  and  State  union :  in 
Massachusetts,  32  ;  in  Plymouth 
colony,  124  ;  favored  by  Thomas 
Arnold,  31;  finally  dissolved 248 

Churches  in  Old  and  New  Eng- 
land, divided  on  the  subject  of 
baptism 21,  24 

Clark,  Joseph  S.,  Congregational- 
ist  churches  in  Massachusetts...  120 


Clarke,  .lohn  :  preaches  and  is  ar- 
rested in  Lynn,  60;  letter  from 
prison  accepting  debate,  60; 
visits  England,  M;  obtains  lib- 
eral charter  for  Rhode  Island, 
205;  "111  Newes  from  New  Eng 
land,"  64 ;  his  motives  di.s 
credited    by   Drs.    Palfrey    and 

Dexter 61 

Cleveland  brothers,  expelled  from 

Yale  College  as  Separatists 201 

Coercive  power  of  a  godly  magis- 
tracy  56,  106,  107 

Colonial   governors  and    English 

sovereigns 267 

Colonies    of    Massachusetts    and 

Plymouth  united  in  1692 148 

Comer,  John,  Diary  of 169 

Commissioners :  of  the  united 
colonies,  55;  on  (iod's  favors  to 
New  England,  51 ;  of  the  king, 
98 ;  contest  of  with  the  Puritan 

authorities 2-56 

Conscientiously :  as  used  in  the 
certificates  and  in  the  Constitu- 
tion, 159,  227 ;  why  offensive  to 

the  Baptists 168,  227,  229,  266 

Committee   of   grievances,    when 

first  and  last  appointed 174,  234 

Consecrated  cobblers 28 

Constitution,  Federal ;  small  ma- 
jority for  it  in  ^[assachusetts, 
260 ;  how  at  first  regarded  by 
Baptists,  261 ;  amendment  of,  se- 
curing religious  liberty  not  ap- 
proved by  Mtissachusetts 246 

Constitution  of  Massachusetts  in 
1780 ;  features  of,  226 ;  Baptist  pro- 
test against  it,  229 ;  projwsed 
change  of  its  Bill  of  Rights  in 

1820,  245  ;  as  changed  in  1833 218 

Cook,  John,  a  Mayflower  passen- 
ger, differing  accounts  of 104 

Cotton,  John  :  mentioned,  20,  27, 
32,  54 ;  discusses  the  Lynn  trag- 
edy, 65;  eulogized  as  "another 

Moses  " 52 

Crosby,  Thomas,   History  of   the 

English  Baptists 23,  48,  118, 143 

Crowle,  wonderful  records  of  its 

Baptist  church 22 

Cudworlh,  James:  disfranchised 
for  opposing  Quaker  persecu- 
tion, 137;  would  be  no  perse- 
cutor, 138 ;  restored  to  favor,  141 : 


INDEX 


271 


testimony  of,  in  regard  to  Presi- 
dent Dunster 138 

Cushman,  Robert,  sermon  to  the 
early  Pilgrims I'io 

Cutting,  S.  S.,  Historical  Vindica- 
tions   22,  lis 

Davis,  Rev.  John :  agent  for  the 
Baptist  churches,  179 ;  reviled 
for  his  efforts 179,  192 

Deane,  Rev.  Samuel :  historian  of 
Scituate,  141 ;  what  he  says  of 
Chauncy's  chin-ch 25 

Debate  of  the  Bay  ministers  :  with 
Boston  Baptists,  95  ;  with  Henry 
Dunster 2.51 

Denison,  Frederic  :  notes  relating 
to  Norwich  Baptists 217 

Dexter,  H.  M.  :  on  John  Robin- 
son's famous  utterance,  17 ;  on 
the  se-haptism  of  John  Smyth, 
22 ;  on  the  cause  of  Roger  Wil- 
liams' banishment,  43  ;  the  pur- 
pose of  Dr.  Clarke  in  the  Lynn 
transaction Gl 

Discussion  of  sermon  after  de- 
livery     70 

Dudley,  Thomas:  his  desired 
epitaph 59 

Dunning,  A.  E.  :  Congregational- 
ists  in  America 126 

Dunster,  Henry  :  stand  of,  against 
pedobaptism,  57,  69  ;  relation  of, 
to  the  Quakers,  138 ;  character 
of,  139,  253 ;  discovery  of  his 
grave 252 

Dyer,  Mary  :  letter  of,  prior  to  ex- 
pected execution,  75 ;  husband's 
plea  for  her  life 79 

Ellis,  George  E. :  Puritan  age  in 
Massachusetts.... 32,  33,  42,  44,  78,  139 

"  Emancipation  of  Massachusetts  " 
delayed 242 

Endicott,  John  :  Roger  Williams' 
address  to,  43 ;  Quakers  hung 
under  administration  of,  44 ; 
called  the  father  of  American 
independence 256 

Episcopal  establishment  in  Vir- 
ginia: its  oppressions 11,  13.  86 

Eulogies  :  on  Hooker,  Winthrop, 
Cotton,  57 ;  on  Norton  and  Wil- 
.son .58,  66 

Exemption  laws  of  Massachusetts : 


given,  262-267  ;  commented  on, 

116,  154-158,  167,  211 

Featly,  Daniel :  Dippers  Dipt 24 

Felt,  Joseph  B  :  Ecclesiastical  His- 
tory  24,  105,  120,  125,  127 

Fiske,  Prof.  John  :  quoted 30 

Five-mile  exemption  act :  char- 
acterized  117,  1.54 

Fletcher,  Asaph,  m.  d.  :  services 
for  religious  freedom 202,  219,  220 

Freemen :  qualifications  for,  in 
Massachusetts  Colony,  32;  in 
Plymouth  Colony 125,  126 

Fuller,  Samuel :  the  Plymouth 
deacon  and  doctor 17,  70 

Gainsboro  and  Scrooby  churches..    21 

Gervinus,  Prof. :  on  the  tolerant 
principles  of  Rhode  Island 44 

Gould,  Thomas:  first  pastor  of 
Boston  Baptist  church,  92  ;  with 
his  companions  in  prison  oft 
93,  96,    99 

Guild,  R.  A. :  Manning  and  Brown 
University,  173  ;  Chaplain  Smith 
and  the  Baptists 161 

Half-way  covenant  scheme  :  men- 
tioned, 119;  its  sad  fruits 120 

Hatherly,  Timothy :  many  gov- 
ernment offices  of,  141 ;  de- 
graded for  opposing  Quaker 
persecution 137 

Hawks,  F.  L. :  Episcopal  his- 
torian  12,  15 

Hawley,  Major  Joseph  :  befriends 
the  Baptist  cause,  215,  219 ;  con- 
nection of,  with  Edwards'  leav- 
ing Northampton 219 

Helwys,  Thomas :  noted  Confes- 
sion of  his  church 23 

Heretical  book  burned  in  Boston..    ,59 

Heretics :  to  be  banished,  91 ;  in 
.John  Cotton's  view,  worthy  of 
death  20 

Hollis,  Thomas,  Esq. :  beneficence 
of,  perverted,  118 ;  letter  of,  to 
ElderWheaton 135 

Holmes,  Obadiah :  arrested  in 
Lynn,  59:  publicly  whipped  in 
Boston,  62;  fate  of  his  sympa- 
thizers     63 

Hooker,  Thomas  :  the  light  of  the 
Western  churches 56,    57 


272 


INDKX 


Hudpor,  .lohii :  lirst  Puritan  mar- 
tyr, utterance  of 20 

Horr,  (ieorge  K.,  Jr. :  defines  toler- 
ation jiiid  !il)erty 212 

Hovey,  Alvali  :  Life  of  Backus  by, 
180;  on  the  worth  of  Backus' 
History,  isi ;  on  the  right  rela- 
tion of  rhun-li  and  State 249 

IIul.l)ard,  William:  History  of  New 
Enj^'land 28,  31,  101,  120,  259 

Hiiljniaier:  early  Baptist  martyr, 
utterance  of 1J8 

Hutchinson,  Mrs.  Anne:  Anti- 
nomian  heresiarch,  49,  51 ;  her 
fate 47 

llutcliinson.  Gov.  Thomas:  His- 
tory of  the  Colony  of  Massachu- 
setts Bay,  240,  259 ;  collection  of 
papers 204,  256 

Important  legal  decision 237 

Infant  baptism  :  early  advocates 
of,  26 ;  divided  opinions  concern- 
ing  55,  119,  120 

Ivimy,  Joseph  :  History  of  the  I'^ng- 
lish  Baptists 143 

King,  II.  M. :  early  Baptists  de- 
fended     62 

Knollys,  Ilanserd  :  his  American 
reputation 49 

Knowles,  J.  D:  Memoir  of  Roger 
Williams 41 

Laws  relating  to  religious  w^or- 
ship :  in  Massachusetts,  31,  36, 
149,  150,  224;  in  Plymouth  Col- 
ony, 131,  132,  134;  in  Connecti- 
cut   35,168,171,  198 

Leland,  Rev.  Aaron:  notice  of 202 

Leland,  John:  services  of,  in  the 
cause  of  freedom,  13 ;  anecdote 
respecting,  13 ;  his  pica  for  lib- 
erty, 240;  his  desired  epitaph 13 

Lenthall,    Robert:    his    work    at 

Wt'vmouth  and  Newport 45 

London's  great  plague  and  fire 258 

Long,  Prof.  J.  C.  :  quoted 247 

Lord,  Dr.  Benjamin,  and  Mr.  Col- 
lier: interesting  colloquy  be- 
tween   217 

Lothrop,  John :  troubled  with 
anabaptism    in    England     and 

.Vnicrica 24.  ij 

Lucur  (Luker),   Mark,  member  of 


Spilsbury 's  church,  became  elder 

at  Newport 21 

Lynde,    Simon :    befriended    the 

Boston  Baptists io7 

Lynn  :  visit  of  Clarke,  Crandall, 

and  Hr>lmcs  to 60 

Madison,  James:  defen.se  by,  of 
the  rights  of  con.science,  12  ;  op- 
posed to  union  of  Church  and 
State 246 

Manning,  James :  principal 
founder  of  the  Warren  Associ- 
ation, 173;  his  interest  in  the 
cause  of  freedom 174, 176,  187,  259 

Ma.ssachusetts  Archives 27 

Massachusetts  Colony:  early 
troubled  with  "isms,"  51;  yet 
originally  intended  as  a  model 
of  the  kingdom  of  Christ 146 

Mather,  Cotton  :  spoken  of,  21, 117  ; 
his  Magnalia  quoted  or  referred 
to 21,  26,  80,  252 

Mather,  Increase  ;  quoted,  20,  26, 

30,  .52,  67,  117,  149 

Maverick,  Samuel :  his  hospitality 
checked io2 

May,  possibilities  of  the  word, 
illustrated 217 

McKenzie,  I)r.  Alexander:  history 
of  first  church  in  Cambridge,  121,  252 

Middleborough :  notice  for  list- 
taking  of  Anabaptists  in 167 

Mitchell,  Jonathan :  relation  to 
President  Dunster,  57,  252  ;  justi- 
fies the  half-way  covenant 119 

Morse,  Rev.  Asahel :  labor  on  the 
Constitution  of  Connecticut 173 

Morton,  Nathaniel :  New  Eng- 
land's memorial 18,  66,  124,  127 

Myles,  John  :  founded  first  Bap- 
tist church  ,in  Massachusetts, 
46 ;  forbidden  to  preach  in  Bos- 
ton, 108;  fined  at  Rehoboth, 
134 :  tolerant  toward  Pedobap- 
tist  practices,  109;  son  of,  be- 
came Episcopal  rector  in  Boston, 

109,  207 

Neale,  R.  H. :  election  sermon 113 

Newman,  Prof.  A.  H. :  History  of 

the  Baptist  churches,  24,  25,  101, 

109,  113 
Norton,  John,  31,  .58,  80,  81,  140; 

view  of  the  atonement 59 


INDEX 


273 


Oakes,  Urian:  his  charge  against 
anabaptism 26 

Old  South  Church  :  how  saved  to 
orthodoxy (J7 

Owen,  John,  advocates  toleration, 

20,  97 

Palfrey,  J.  G. :  liistory  of  New 
England 31,  59,  01,  70,  HI 

Parker,  Chief  Justice  Isaac;  de- 
cision on  tlie  Parish  question I'JO 

Parsons,  Judge  Theophilus:  de- 
cision of 239 

Pedobaptism :  early  works  in  de- 
fense of,  2(;;  what  it  meant  in 
Puritan  times ,">« 

Persecution :  strongest  argument 
for,  48 ;  of  Separatists,  4r),  168, 
171,  172,  201,  224,  235 ;  of  Quakers 
in  Massachusetts  and  Plymouth 
Colonies,  71-89,  137-141  ;  of  Bap- 
tists in  Massachusetts,  48,  49,  92- 
112,  115,  130,  131,  134,  135,  153,  154, 
161-163,  176,  182,  189,  192,  193,  196, 
197,  207,  212,  223,  230,  231,  235,  237; 
in  Maine,  11:!,  193 ;  in  New 
Hampshire,  49.  80,  197;  in  Ver- 
mont, 201,  233 ;  in  Connecticut, 
170-173,  200,  201 ;  in  the  South. ..12,  13 

Philips,  Rev.  George :  early  Pedo- 
baptist  writer,  27 ;  intercedes 
for  Stowers,  fined  for  reading  an 
Anabaptist  book,  27;  famous 
schools  founded  by  descendants 
of 27 

Pilgrims  :  distinguished  from  Pur- 
itans, 17 ;  purpose  in  coiuing 
hither,  123  ;  not  wholly  friendly 
to  toleration,  133, 1:?4  ;  incited  to 
Intolerance  by  the  Puritans,  128, 
136,  142  ;  monument  erected  to, 
in  Plymouth 122 

Plymouth  ;  a  memorable  Sunday's 
service  in 70 

Plymouth  Colony  records 41,  42,  127 

Proctor,  John :  spirited  remon- 
strance from  the  Baptist 
churches 150,  207 

Punchard,  George  :  History  of  Con- 
gregationalism   Ill 

Puritan  and  Baptist  fathers :  date 
of  their  deaths .56.  116,  243 

Puritans  ;  distinguished  from  the 
Pilgrims,  15 ;  motives  for  emi- 
grating hither,  28  ;    their  theo- 


cratic government,  32, 146  ;  their 
right  to  exclude  unwelcome  in- 
truders, 31,  ;!2  ;  opposed  to  toler- 
ation, 20,  52  ;  their  rule  and  in- 
fluence gradually  weakenea, 
148  ;  were  honest  and  conscien- 
tious   143 

Quakers:  first  arrival  of,  in  Bos- 
ton, 70 ;  laws  passed  against 
71-74  ;  the  hanging  of,  74,  77,  88 
befriended  by  "Charles  R., 
81,  88  ;  fanatical  actions  of,  85  , 
less  indecent  in  Plymouth  Col- 
ony   142 

Quincy,  Josiah :  History  of  Har- 
vard University 139 

Quotations  ;  difficulty  of  verifying,  207 

Randolph,  Edward  :  proposals  to 
favor  the  English  church 262 

Ransom,  Elisha  :  letter  to  Backus,  202 

Refractoriness  of  Massachusetts : 
how  met  by  British  authority 256 

Rehoboth  ;  connection  with  early 
Baptist  interests 46, 131,  134,  135 

Religious  freedom  ;  act  of  1811 239 

Remonstrances  from  England 
against  per.secution 65,  97,  98 

Revival  of  1780,  190  ;  in  Boston  in 
1,S0;M80.5.. 67 

Rhode  Island:  tolerant  charter 
and  government  of,  64,  203-206 ; 
how  Quakers  and  Jews  were 
treated  in,  83,  206  ;  not  favored 
by  the  other  colonies,  .55,  203  ;  its 
petition  for  Connecticut  Baptists  169 

Robbins,  Chandler :  history  of  the 
Second  Church,  Boston 91 

Robbins,  Philemon :  persecuted 
for  preaching  to  the  Walling- 
ford  Baptists 170,  201 

Robinson,  John  :  utterance  of,  con- 
cerning more  light,  17 ;  his  son 
Isaac  disfranchised 137 

Russell,  Elder  John,  the  "  wed- 
derdop'd  shoemaker";  men- 
tioned, 28,  104 ;  his  Brief  Narra- 
tive, 103,  116  ;  petition  for  relief 
from  prison  bonds 100 

Salem  :  first  ministers  of,  how  in- 
stalled, 18  ;  not  altogether  peace- 
ful after  Roger  Williams  leav- 
ing     37 


274 


INDEX 


Seauiiuon,  Kucliul  Thurbcr,  ii  liiip- 
tist  pioneer  in  New  Hampshire.    -17 

Screven,  VVilliuni,  bitter  experi- 
ences of,  in  Maine ll'i 

Sewel,  \Villiani,  History  of  the 
Quakers 80,  80,  139 

Shepanl,  Tlioiiuis:  of  Cambridge, 
27,  .'lO,  r)8;  of  Cliark'sto\vii...yl,  y."",  lutj 

Shrinipton,  Henry,  and  tianiuel, 
friendly  to  Boston  Baptists luu 

Smitli,  Cliileab,  ancestor  of  Mary 
Lyon,  177 ;  strives  and  suffers 
for  religious  liberty 177 

Smith,  Hezekiah :  how  he  ob- 
tained required  certiticates,  IGO ; 
appointed  agent  to  England, 
178;  severely  persecuted ItU 

Sprague's,  W.  B.,  Annals  of  tho 
American  Pulpit,  Vol.  VI.,  Bap- 
ti.'its i:i,  203 

Standisli,  Miles:  probably  never 
"  under  covenant,"  124  ;  his  will.  12,') 

Stearns,  Shul>ael,  his  labors  in  the 
South 114 

Stillman,  Samuel:  his  work  for 
religious  freedom,  174-178,  ]k;, 
2:iG  ;  i)reaclu's  election  sermon...  112 

Stoddard,  Solomon,  regarded  the 
Lord's  Supper  as  a  converting 
ordinance  for  luilf-way  church- 
members  119 

Stow,  Baron,  centennial  sermon 
of  1843 1.31 

Stowers,  John,  fined  for  reading 
an  Anabaptist  book 27,  21.3 

Straus,  Oscar  S.,  aiithoi'  of  Life  of 
Roger  Williams 40,  44 

Sufferings  of  Baptists  and  Quakei's 
in  England 143 

Sumner,  W.  H.,  History  of  East 
Boston 99 

Swain,  Leonard,  uttcraiu'e  of,  at 
the  Warren  .\s.soeiation  Centen- 
nial     15 

Synod  :  of  lf;37,  •'"il  :  of  KVIti,  .3.');  of 
"ir,.37.  120:  of  UHVj,  119:  of  it;79 114 

Taylor,  .Jeremy.  i>lca  for  religious 
tolerance 29,  10(i 

Thatcher,  James,  History  of  Plym- 
outh  " 104 

Trumbull.  Benjamin.  History  of 
Connecticut 198,  201 

Trumbull,  J.  H.  Blue  Laws,  true 
anil  false,  of  Connecticut 141 


']  inner,  William:  petition  for  re- 
lea.se  from  prLson,  101;  "Tur- 
ner's Falls  "  commemorates  liis 
valor loti 

Unitarian  ilefection,  causesof 120 

Vermont's  pioneer  (■hami)ions  of 
religious  liberty 202 

Wanton,  Edward,  interesting  ac- 
count of 77 

Ward,  Nathaniel :  his  Simple  Cob- 
bler of  Aggawam,  27;  his  Body 
of  Liberties 27,  .50 

Warren  Association,  founding  of..  173 

Washington,  George  :  commenda- 
tion of  Bapti.st  loyalty,  190;  let- 
ter to  the  Newjxjrt  Jews 237 

Wearing  long  hair,  an  ofTense  to 
the  Puritans 240 

Webster,  Daniel,  in  the  State  Con- 
stitutional (;onvention  of  1820...  243 

Westminster  Assembly,  three  Puri- 
tan divines  invited  to 57 

Weston,  Prof.  David,  Notes  to 
Backus'  History 222 

Whipping  at  "  cart's  tayle  "...74,  85,  80 

Wickenden,  William :  ashoemaker 
pioneer  preacher,  28  ;  fined  and 
impri.soned  in  New  Netherland..    28 

Wightman,  Valentine,  monument 
to ISO 

Willard,  Samuel :  At'  Sittor  ultra 
Cvepidam,  28,  111 :  his  character- 
ization of  New  England  Ana- 
baptists      .')! 

Williams,  Rev.  N.  W.,  in  the  Con- 
stilutional  Convention  of  1820...  241 

Williams,  Roger:  why  banished, 
37,  40.  l:!,  214  :  sentence  of,  re- 
voked, 42;  his  phrase,  soul  free- 
dom, 29,  40.  09:  his  two  visits  to 
England,  2.');! :  letter  of,  to  the 
Massachusetts  aiUhorities,  41, 
2.53;  .services  of,  to  the  Puritan 
colony,  41  ;  writings  of,  against 
John  Cott<in.  .54;  again.st  the 
Quakers,  143 :  how  ami  to  what 
extent  he  would  allow  tolera- 
tion, :W :  styles  himself  a  ]>oor. 
despised  ram's  horn,  19;  monu- 
ment of,  in  Providence 180 

Wilson,  Rev.  John,  opi)o.sed  to 
.\nabaptism  and  (Juakerism....Oh,  07 


INDEX 


275 


Winslow,  Gov.  Edward  :  reference 
to,  14,  25,  41 :  kindness  of,  to 
Roger  Williams'  family 133 

Winthrop,  John  :  History  of  New 
England,  46,  70;  friendly  rela- 
tions of  to  Roger  Williams,  40, 
45  ;  his  sons  opposed  to  persecu- 
tion   40,  200 

Wisner,  B.  B.,  History  of  Old  South 
Church 67 


Writers  on  persecution  in  the 
South... 15 

Young,  Rev.  Alexander :  his 
Chronicles  of  the  Pilgrims,  123  ; 
his  Chronicles  of  the  Puritans, 
145  ;  his  estimate  of  the  Puritan 
character,  145  ;  his  strong  relig- 
ious faith 145 


STUDIES   ON    BAPTISM,  WITH    REVIEW  OF  J.  W.  DALE 
New  and  revised  edition,  with  full  index.      By  the  same  author 

TESTIMONIALS. 

I  have  examined  the  advance  sheets  of  your  forthcoming  book,  and  am  very  much 
pleased.  The  work  might  be  entitled,  "  The  Encyclopaedia  of  Baptism,"  so  wide  is  its 
range  of  topics  and  so  thorough  are  its  discussions.  .  .  It  is  the  first  serious  and  ex- 
tended examination  of  Dr.  Dale  ever  made  by  any  Baptist  scholar. — Prof.  Franklin 

folmson. 

1  think  very  highly  of  the  work  There  is  just  enough  of  easy  humor  and  self- 
possession  In  the  style  to  make  it  pleasant  reading,  while  the  sound  judgment  and  safe 
learning  pervading  it  from  first  to  last  will  ensure  it  a  high  place,  indeed  the  highest, 
among  the  discussions  of  the  subject  which  it  treats.  I  congratulate  you  on  having 
written  so  thorough,  able   and  readable  a  work. — Pres.  Ahuih  Hovey. 

I  have  this  day  finished  reading  your  work  on  baptism.  It  is  a  thesaurus — a  work 
of  immense  labor,  of  extensive  research,  and  of  sound  learning.  It  is  fair  and  candid, 
and  presents  the  subject  in  its  true  light  .  .  I  congratulate  you  on  your  success,  and 
in  my  pride  shall  very  likely  say  that  1  number  you  among  my  pupils. — Pres.  Barnas 
Sears. 

The  author  has  read  widely  on  the  subject,  and  has  written,  apparently,  with  a 
library  on  baptism  about  him  Al.  the  instances  of  baptism  in  the  New  Testament  are 
reviewed  and  ali  such  matters  as  infant  baptism,  the  baptism  of  households,  the 
ancient  baptisteries  and  pictures  of  baptism  and  the  doctrinal  connections  of  the  rite, 
receive  careful  treatment. — Pre/   M'illiain  N-  Clarke. 

Mr.  Ford's  work  is  the  most  thorough  and  scholarly  treatment  of  the  subject  of  bap- 
tism in  the  I'.nglish  language  so  far  as  the  present  writer  knows.  .  .  The  book  is 
packed  with  facts  and  reasonings  We  are  ad  to  see  the  new  edition  dedicated  to 
the  memory  of  Professors  Ripley  Hackett,  and  Sears,  the  author's  ''beloved  and  re- 
vered Newton  teachers." — N.  Marshinan    Williams   D   D. 

Mr.    Ford's  studies  on   baptism   are   a   credit  to  his  critical  acumen,  his  extensive  ' 
scholarship,  his  literary  ability,  and  his  moral  nature.     They  are  controversial  without 
an  atom  of  bitterness,  and  learned  without  even  the  suspicion  of  pedantry.      No  Bap- 
tist library  is  henceforth  complete  without  them   and  no  future  discussion  of  the  Bap- 
tist position  can  afford  to  ignore  them. — Prof   T.  Harivood  Pattison. 

I  have  "  looked  "  through  the  work  from  beginning  to  end,  and  it  appears  to  me 
learned,  comprehensive,  and  thorough.  I  call  to  mind  no  work  which  will  give  students 
a  more  clear  idea  of  the  present  state  of  investigation  and  thought  (as  represented  by 
all  parties  to  the  controversy)  on  the  subject  of  baptism. — Pres.  Martin  B.  Anderson. 

I  have  read  the  work  with  great  pleasure.  The  care  with  which  it  has  been  written, 
the  soundness  of  its  criticisms,  the  fullness  of  reading  on  the  subject  which  it  every- 
where shows,  the  excellent  spirit  which  pervades  the  whole — its  pleasantries  never  run- 

\  277 


Ding  into  sneers,  nor  its  replies  to  ill-natured  criticisms  into  a  like  ill  nature — all  these 
will  contribute  to  give  tht  work  :i  permanent  place  in  the  libraries  of  careful  anii  un- 
prejuUiiLcl  readers,  whatever  may  he  their  view  of  baptism.  —  J'res.  Ezekiel  C.  Robin- 
son. 

It  is  by  far  the  best  contribution  that  has  been  made  to  the  baptismal  question  in 
the  more  recent  stage  of  the  controversy.  .  .  It  has  been  a  great  help  to  me  in  a  recent 
discussion  with  the  Presbyterian  magnates.  .  .  Vou  have  done  a  grand,  scholarly 
work  for  the  denomination. — J.  1..  Hiorinus,  /'.  y>. 

This  is  a  book  that  ought  to  be  in  the  hands  of  every  Baptist  minister  and  every  in- 
telligent layman.  It  has  won  high  praise  for  its  learning  and  spirit  from  Pedobaptists 
of  various  denominations.  There  is  a  rich  vein  of  delicate  humor  running  through  the 
volume  which  makes  it  as  interesting  as  a  novel.  .  .  This  is  the  book  on  baptism. — 
/'.   /'.  Eaton,  D.  D. 

Nothing  has  appeared  for  years — if,  indeed,  ever  before — that  may  be  compared  with 
this  work  for  a  satisfactory  discussion  of  this  much-vexed  subject. — Journal  and  Mes- 
senger. 

A  viiluine  packed  with  information  on  the  baptismal  question.  The  author's  studies 
have  been  very  extensive,  anil  he  writes  apparently  with  an  encyclopa;dic  knowledge 
of  the  subject.— .V<j//V)«rt/  Baptist. 

A  large  number  of  works  have  been  consulted  in  the  preparation  of  these  studies,  and 
the  reader  will  have  a  treasure  of  facts  pertaining  to  the  baptismal  iiuestion.  1  he  vol- 
ume is  beautifully  jirinted. — Zioit's  AtiTocate. 

It  is,  in  our  judgment,  the  best  book  on  our  side  ot  the  baptismal  controversy  since 
the  immortal  work  of  Alexander  Carson. — Memphis  Baptist. 

The  work  will  take  its  place  as  a  book  of  reference,  and  will  stand  second  to  none  in 
the  baptismal  controversy.  .  .  We  are  sorry  to  observe  that  the  volume  has  no  London 
publisher. — London  Baptist  Messenger. 

We  have  read  Mr,  Ford's  studies  with  intense  satisfaction.  His  treatise  is  thor- 
oughly abreast  of  the  times — scholarly,  candid,  generous — and  we  trust  it  will  gain  as 
large  a  circulation  in  England  as  it  cannot  fail  to  have  in  America. — London  Baptist 
Magazine. 

In  twci-aiul-lhirty  chapters  Mr.  Ford  traverses  the  entire  field  with  competent  schol- 
arship, with  great  candor  and  fairness,  and  with  a  force  of  argument  and  learning 
which  ought  to  carry  conviction  to  candid  readers.  .  .  The  summary  of  views  on  im- 
portant and  difficult  te.\ts,  the  notes  on  the  history  of  baptism  in  the  K.nglish  church, 
and  on  nude  baptisms  in  early  limes,  have  siieciai  value. — London  p'reeinan. 

We  earnestly  say  to  all  who  wish  to  have,  within  due  limits,  a  trustworthy  account 
of  what  has  been  said  up  to  the  present  by  leading  minds  on  the  question  of  baptism  : 
by  all  means  get  this  book — well  named,  "Studies  on  Baptism." — Scottish  Baptist 
Magazine. 

PF.DORAPTIST  TESTIMONY. 
An  immense  amount  of  valuable  information  is  put  between  the  covers  of  this  book, 
and  to  any  one  especially  devoted  to  the  study  of  this  subject  it  will  be  an  important 
aid.  .It  bears  marks  of  candor,  ability,  scholarship,  bias,  make-shift,  zeal,  and  skill, 
so  woven  together  in  the  earnest  pursuit  of  a  pre-formed  purpose,  as  to  leave  the  reader 
at  a  loss  whether  most  to  admire  the  tact,  talent,  or  temerity  of  the  writer. — Ilart/ord 
Religious  Herald. 

A  large  octavo  volume  of  over  four  hundred  pages,  exhibiting  much  learning,  im- 
mense industry,  and  exhanstless   zeal  in  trying  to  prove  that  immersion  is  the  only 
valid  Christian   baptism,  an.     that  close  communionism   is  n   pre-eminently  Christian 
=  78 


practice.  Those  who  are  of  the  writer's  way  of  thinking  will  prize  highly  his  work, 
while  even  they  who  do  not  agree  with  him  will  be  surprised  at  the  wealth  of  matter 
which  the  book  contains. —  Chicago  Advance. 

A  large  amount  of  information  relating  to  baptism  is  given  in  the  form  of  citations 
and  extracts  from  various  writers — ancient  and  modern — and  in  descriptions  of  ancient 
baptisteries  and  paintings. — Lutheran  Observe^'. 

We  do  not  suppose  there  is  anything  in  the  English  language  which  gives  so  thorough 
a  discussion  of  the  whole  subject,  both  in  its  historic  and  exegetical  aspects,  for  the 
purpose  of  maintaining  the  doctrine  of  immersion.  The  author's  spirit  is  kindly  and 
Christian. —  The  Christian  Union. 

The  tone  and  spirit  of  Mr.  Ford's  book  are  worthy  of  all  praise.  He  is  not  a  bitter 
controversialist,  whether  he  is  a  fair  one  or  not.  There  is  a  vein  of  good  humor  run- 
ning through  his  work  which  somewhat  relieves  its  otherwise  intolerably  wearisome 
minuteness  of  mere  verbal  discussion.  And  he  professes,  let  us  rather  admit,  mani- 
fests, the  kindest  spirit  toward  brethren  of  other  Christian  churches,  and  really  seems 
very  anxious  to  be  catholic  if  the  miserable  little  strait-jacket  he  wears  would  only  let 
him.  Let  us  add,  that  he  is  evidently  a  man  of  large  reading,  and  has  made  himself 
very  familiar  with  many  parts  of  the  Baptist  controversy. — Southern  Presbyterian 
Revieiv. 

The  book  will  be  a  thesaurus  of  arguments  for  the  Baptist  denomination,  and  may  be 
consulted  with  profit  by  others  who  are  interested  in  the  subject  which  it  handles. 
The  author  disposes  of  much  sophistical  reasoning  as  well  as  mistaken  history  and 
erroneous  philology  which  have  been  in  vogue  among  the  polemics  of  the  other  side. — 
The  IVeiti  Englander. 

We  have  examined  this  work  of  a  scholarly  Baptist,  and  while  we  differ  from  many 
of  his  statements,  we  must  accord  to  him  high  praise.  His  work  is  the  best  authority 
to  which  our  readers  can  refer  for  learning  the  exact  position  of  the  Baptists  on  the 
controverted  topic. — Bibliotheca  Sacra. 

It  is  the  result  of  much  research,  over  six  hundred  writers  having  been  quoted.  .  .  All 
who  seek  truth  may  be  benefited  in  reading  these  things. — Kansas  Methodist. 

We  have  no  hesitation  in  saying  that  the  author,  though  evidently  a  funny  man,  has 
been  pretty  thorough  in  his  study  of  early  and  primitive  usage. — Episcopal  Recorder. 

We  should  say  quite  confidently  that  to  those  who  are  a  priori  prepared  for  it,  this 
will  be  found  a  forcible,  well-reasoned,  effective,  and  convincing  volume.  It  is,  at 
least,  courteous  in  tone  and  fair  in  intent. —  The  Congregationalist. 

All  who  desire  to  inform  themselves  of  the  Baptist  side  of  this  question  would  do 
well  to  procure  Mr.  Ford's  book,  which  presents  the  argument  of  the  immersionists 
with  all  the  ingenuity  and  force  that  it  is  susceptible  of. —  Central  Presbyterian. 


279 


Date  Due 

^P2b  -A 

b 

I^Y  1  ?  '48 

Si    ■  -  - 

lln  ■•■^' 

1 

1 

^pr^r-      .                        . 

f^»<^r 

^^*<^ 

nrj-2<V- 

! 

■     ')% 

1 

1 

..•ff*" '   >■             i 

ll_^^^^  ^            1 

i 

1 
1 

f) 

.-i?^ 


